Not So Journ
by rubyhardflames
Summary: It burned my eyes and pained every part of my body.  It destroyed my piwafwi and boots, stole the magic from my armor, and weakened my trusted scimitars.  It was...a flashlight? /What happens when Drizzt lands in our world instead?\
1. Prelude

**READ THIS, DON'T SKIP IT. =Update, February 2nd 2013: This fanfiction is undergoing a revamp. Hope you see and enjoy the difference!=  
**

This is the first Drizzt Do'Urden fanfiction I have ever made. **I've only read Homeland and Exile, and am currently reading through Sojourn.** If anything's out of place, take it easy on me and just tell me :). You can praise it or flame it.

**ALSO! _IMPORTANT, READ!_ **This fanfiction has been made **assuming that the surface world Drizzt enters is not Faerun, that it is ours instead. Yes, you heard me, ours; as in, reality.** So basically I am warping Sojourn a bit...ok, maybe a lot...But this is what I had in mind. Still got magic in it though, for all you fantasy fans out there.

DISCLAIMER: The Legend of Drizzt and characters belong to R.A. Salvatore and Wizards of the Coast.

**_But all the the OC's (ex: Ahnnie, Ahmereld, Lillyn, Grandpa Long Ha...etc) belong to me. Ha!_**

DISCLAIMER: Whatever views expressed in this fanfic should not be taken personally. If any such thing happens, it is not of my doing, and therefore I am not responsible. So suck it up and take it elsewhere.

*A Note on the Languages: The foreign languages written here are from an online translator except for the Vietnamese _(Có nói tiếng Việt được không?_). I know how to read and partially write in the language, and I am also fluent, you know why? Cuz I'm Viet. :)

* * *

Prelude

**_It burned my eyes and pained every part of my body. _**

**_It destroyed my piwafwi and boots, stole the magic from my armor, and weakened my trusted scimitars..._**

**_It was..._a flashlight?**

**_-Drizzt Do'Urden_**

* * *

Drizzt yelped at the sudden stinging brightness of the ray of light. It assaulted his eyes cruelly and even after he looked away, spots glared into those sensitive lavender orbs. Before this ever happened, Drizzt was facing a darkened night sky and feeling a deliciously cool breeze. How this light ever came up upon him he did not know, but what he did know was that it wasn't the sun. The sun was not that small, and its arrival often gave the sky a pink luster; something he had seen the day of the surface raid, when he had the other drow were fleeing the scene.

His senses were also telling him that he was not alone.

Guenhwyvar, his trusty panther friend, merely squinted and leapt forward at their assailants. The quick and agile creature managed to gain a hold of whoever was there; perhaps the wielder of the light?; but for some reason, was pushed aggressively off.

"Aah!"

The drow, with his eyes averted from the painful beam so powerfully contrasted with the darkness of the night, whirled around to face it again at the sudden sound of screaming; the screaming of a young voice.

"No, Guenhwyvar, take ease!" he cried.

The panther obeyed, leaping back down to stand beside Drizzt. The cat's muscles still tensed, however, for it did not sense that the danger had passed. Drizzt, too, could feel his body automatically preparing itself for a fight. There was more company here than just the youngster who had screamed. Well, only one more, but that did not matter when the other was currently possessing a staff with suspiciously, though lightly, sharpened points at each end.

Drizzt realized that with the light to brighten up the scene, he no longer had a need for sight in the infrared spectrum. He quickly changed his eyes over to see in the light, though that was not much more comfortable either.

When the drow's eyes grew more accustomed to the new sight, he saw the stars twinkling; so beautiful!; and in its light he could make out the forms of a young human girl and her armed companion, male. His silhouette showed him to be shorter; only by a half-inch, but not counting Guenhwyvar, he was the shortest of them all. His ears were severely pointed and their tips peeked above his head, adding yet more to the fact he was a midget. However, it ruled out any chances of him being an elf. Elven ears were not that big. But the way he held his staff showed Drizzt that he was undaunted by their differences in height.

Slowly, the dark elf approached them, his arms crossed over his chest in an X to show that he meant peace.

The two forms looked at each other for several moments. The girl curiously flashed her annoying light over the walls of the cave, now knowing better and letting it hit anywhere but the drow's face. She let it bounce around like so for a few minutes, then set it down on a rock. Facing Drizzt.

The drow arched an eyebrow at the light illuminating his knees.

The girl, not yet done, reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a long, long list. Drizzt wondered how such a lengthy sheet of paper could fit into a space so small, but this was the surface world; and he knew nothing of it yet.

"Parlais vous francais?" she asked.

Drizzt put out his hands helplessly before him, showing that he did not understand.

The girl looked down at the next thing on the list. "Können Sie Deutsch sprechen?"

Before Drizzt could do anything else, she shot down the list at a rather amazing speed.

"Puede hablar Español?

Can you speak English?

Có nói tiếng Việt được không?"

Frustrated at his inability to recognize any of the words, Drizzt placed a foot impatiently forward and said in his native drow, "Please, stop, I cannot understand a word you are saying!"

That shook the girl up a bit and made her silent. But her strange friend, however, reacted differently.

"You will not take another step forward!" he warned, pointing his staff directly at the drow's nose.

Of course, Drizzt could not understand. But he realized that he had erred, and quickly crossed his arms over his chest again to reassure the two strangers.

"What is he doing?" the girl asked in a hushed voice.

"This is no unfortunate spelunker who has been lost in the caves, I'm afraid," the armed man replied just as quietly. "I thought at first, maybe, he was just a crazy dark-skinned cosplayer/spelunker, but...no coincidence is that outrageous. And as you can remember, my race spends some time among the rocks and caves ourselves..."

"And?"

"I can identify this creature." The staff-wielder placed his staff back again beside him, and took calm steps toward Drizzt. He stopped a yard away. "This is what we can safely call...a drow."

Drizzt's ears perked up. Drow! Drats, was that seriously the _only _word he could ever understand every time someone foreign identified him? But, at least, he understood something.

"Look at that light in his eyes," the man continued. "It's recognition."

"Eld, we'd better be careful then...Grandpa's told me of the drow before." The human girl gulped. Drizzt did not like the way she said "drow". It was full of fear and caution. "When dad was a little boy, a drow party came to raid the wild elves here...they killed every one of them...except for Elwing, that is, and she's still lucky to have even remembered it by now! You'd think the trauma would have erased it, but-"

"Elwing is a strong girl," Ahmereld said, smiling slightly at her use of his nickname. "But that's not the point right now." He turned and focused his eyes on Drizzt, who now saw them as deep, emerald green orbs. "Ahnnie, I believe we can communicate with him. Drow is similar to Elven...try it out."

"Why can't you?"

"My Elven is clumsy!"

"But I don't want to speak to him!" Ahnnie pointed an accusing finger at Drizzt, who did not understand.

The drow, however, did not find all lost. They probably wanted to know his name, but didn't know how to address him. Or they were planning on killing him. Either way, he prodded a finger at his chest and said, "Drizzt Do'Urden."

Again, he quieted the human girl. This time, he got the strange green-eyed stranger as well.

"Is that your name?" Ahnnie asked in Elven, finally giving in, albeit shakily.

Drizzt was surprised. The words were similar even if the dialect was not, but...but...she spoke to him! This human _said something he understood! _"I...Yes, that is my name."

"Which is your surname? Drizzt or Do'Urden?"

"Do'Urden, of course."

"Oh." Ahnnie slumped her shoulders down, a sign Drizzt saw as relief. Perhaps it was because she knew him better. But that didn't make him any less of a threat, as she soon showed with the determined light in her brown eyes. "Why have you come here?"

"How many with you?" Ahmereld joined in with broken, uneven Elven.

Drizzt crossed his arms over his chest again. "Please, I do not mean any harm. This sign I am making right now means peace."

"For how long?" Ahnnie asked warily.

"For as long as I live," came the defiant answer. When everything grew silent, Drizzt continued, "I only wish to live a better life here...Please, do not reject me..." Even he himself was surprised at the sadness in his own voice. Had he really been that lonely?

Ahnnie and Eld looked at each other.

"If you want proof, I give my weapons to you." Drizzt gingerly unsheathed his scimitars and laid them on the ground. Guenhwyvar, not understanding anything, was horribly mortified when Drizzt took out the onyx figurine as well. "And you can have this to look at, too. It summons Guenhwyvar, the panther you see before you. I only ask of you that you give it back to me after your examination. Guenhwyvar is my dear friend and I cannot bear losing her." Especially if these people would not accept his friendship.

Ahmereld quickly took up the scimitars in his arms, and looked at Ahnnie to see what she would do with the figurine.

"Go on, take it," he prompted. "We could learn something about it."

As though Guenhwyvar understood, the cat issued a low growl from its throat. But Drizzt could not let it do anything unpredictably aggressive anymore, so he commanded his cat friend back to the astral plane, and watched hopelessly as Guenhwyvar dispersed in black mist back into the statuette.

"I-I..." She looked with wide eyes at the drow. She was truly taken aback by this...non-drow behavior. "I cannot be rude. I will take this, of course." She took the onyx figurine in her hand. "But you have given us your name, whereas _we _haven't said anything." At this, she gave Eld a pointedly angry stare.

"He is a drow!" Eld reminded her in English.

"We've got to get back now," Ahnnie continued in Elven, ignoring her companion. "But I'll make this quick by giving you our nicknames. I'm Ahnnie, and that green guy you're seeing is Eld. He's an imp, if you're confused."

"Ahnnie. Eld." Drizzt let the names roll off his tongue, like succulent candy. He had heard of nicknames before, and heard them called out among the svirfneblin children at play, but never had he said one. Or been called by one. Maybe they would give him a nickname too?

"Come." Ahnnie held out a hand as if to invite him.

Drizzt reached out for it, but was responded with crystal handcuffs that suddenly formed over his wrists.

"Beryl," the human girl explained. "Its hardness is amplified with the use of magic."

Ahmereld smirked at the drow's situation.

"You must know," she continued as they walked away from the cave with more confidence than she showed him previously (perhaps due to the fact that the drow was now bound), "that you're about to enter a house of magicians. In a world not nearly so magical," she added softly.

Drizzt, completely understanding why she disabled him in the first place, followed with no struggle. But what her last phrase meant was a mystery.

Oh, he would soon find out...

* * *

Voila! There you have it. It's alot more magical than modern, I do agree, but this is only the prologue. And I even left a cliffhanger at the end (if that is a cliffhanger)! Please read the next chapter! You won't be disappointed!


	2. Good Night, Sleep Tight

**=Revamped: February 5, 2013=**

Chapter Two! Where Drizzt enters...well, that's up for you to read. Why would I spoil it for you? Oh, talking of spoilers...**Just because I haven't read farther than the first three books doesn't mean you can spoil anything for me! So please, when you review, do not post anything to do with the future of Drizzt or other Forgotten Realms characters whatsoever! **I like reading the reviews I get and if I see one that just screams SPOILER...it hurts.

Also, you now get to know a bit more of Ahnnie and Eld :).

* * *

"Grandpa, Eld and I are back!" Ahnnie called out in her native Vietnamese.

Drizzt entered the threshold of the house, unaccustomed to the bright lighting of the hallway lamps and chandelier. Especially the chandelier. He lifted his cuffed hands to ward off its discomfort, as if it were attacking him.

Ahnnie and Ahmereld had led the drow, blindfolded (by Eld's suggestion), through a seemingly lengthy pathway and now up to the back door of a humble little house. Only when they were at the door did they take off Drizzt's blindfold. Now he wished they hadn't.

"It's quite late," Ahmereld noticed. "And everyone's asleep. You shouldn't be so loud."

Ahnnie nodded, and waved a dismissive hand at Drizzt. The handcuffs disappeared. "You are still surrounded here," she was quick to remind him. "So don't get any funny ideas."

Drizzt nodded and flexed his wrists. He thought of saying something, a thank-you or an apology for intruding, but did not think any of it appropriate at the moment. Now in clearer light, he could see that both Ahnnie and Eld were exhausted beyond doubt and that their journey outdoors might not have been an option. Talking to them right now would not result in a good turn of fate.

Other than that, Ahnnie was right about Eld being green.

The imp was green from his skin to his eyes to his hair; just so leaf-colored that he nearly made Drizzt jolt at the sight of him. Luckily his clothes weren't green either, or the drow would've thought that they were a part of him as well.

Ahnnie, however, was of a different coloring. Of course, she was human, but she was nothing like the wizard who had turned Clacker from a pech to a hook horror. There was light at the time and Drizzt had seen the old man's skin as a peachy sort of color, and his hair a wiry, grayish-white.

This girl, though, had smooth hair as black as the Underdark and skin that was...yellowish.

_The surface world is very peculiar_, the drow remarked to himself.

"Oh darn it," Ahnnie muttered to Eld, in English this time. "I just remembered that I left my flashlight back there!"

"At the cave?" he asked.

"Yes."

"We'll get it tomorrow." Ahmereld politely slipped out of his boots (shrinking him further; apparently, they had heels) and left them on a mat at the side of the hallway. "Let's just get some rest, now."

Ahnnie did the same thing, though a little more impatiently than politely. "We gotta do something about the drow first." She pointedly said this in Elven.

"Tomorrow," Ahmereld said with a yawn. The way he pronounced it was comical to Drizzt and he would've laughed, if he weren't at their mercy.

And since he was at their mercy (for the same reasons he left himself at the svirfneblin's mercy), he might as well do as they do. Reluctantly, Drizzt pushed off his boots and let his bare feet touch the cool wooden floor.

Almost at once, Ahnnie and Ahmereld began gagging and coughing. Alarmed, the drow looked about him and tried to sniff out any gases or poison that might have invaded the air. But when he couldn't sense anything, he asked them, "What is wrong? Are you not feeling well?"

Eld, eyes watering, said with his hand over his mouth and nose, "What reeks?"

"Reeks?" Drizzt asked confusedly. "I do not smell anything offensive."

Ahnnie led her gaze wander over to the drow's boots, the ones he had just taken off, and was apalled when _flies _started buzzing over them. "I think the boots are the problem!" she pointed out.

"My boots?" The drow blinked.

"Goodness gracious, they sure stink to High Heaven!" Eld exclaimed in English.

"When did you last take them off?" Ahnnie asked Drizzt.

Drizzt pondered that for a moment. "I have not gone without my boots since I left Menzoberranzan."

"And how long ago was that?"

"I believe it was a decade ago," Drizzt said, remembering the ordeals of the Underdark wilds as he did so.

"WHAT?" Ahnnie and Eld screamed in unison.

"What is wrong?" the drow asked.

"He says it like its completely normal," Eld whispered, horrified.

"Perhaps there is a reason," Ahnnie said, trying to be logical. "Shouldn't we find the fact that he left his city, Menzoberranzan, about a decade ago, weird?"

That hit home somewhere in the imp's reasoning. "Yes...yes indeed...that would make sense for him coming alone, but what if he's lying?"

"Good point."

When the two of them turned back to face Drizzt, they found him bending over his boots, trying to sniff out the problem. Ahnnie hid her face in her hands, while Eld slapped himself with a face-palm. They were both thinking the same thing: _He wouldn't be able to smell it out if he's been used to the scent for ten years!_

"Um, Drizzt..." Ahnnie gingerly put a hand on the drow's shoulder and gently pushed him away. "I'll take care of the problem. You should follow Eld...He'll show you where the bathroom is and teach you how to use a shower." She gave the imp a you'll-do-it-and-you-won't-complain kind of glare.

Ahmereld was about to protest, but at the sudden curious look Drizzt adopted in his lavender eyes, the imp couldn't resist. His number one pride was teaching others about whatever he knew; it gave him a sense of all-knowing and self-admiration. "Right...the shower..." He set his staff against the wall, ran to some distant room to put the drow's scimitars away, then came back and cleared his throat. It was going to be difficult, though, especially if he was going to explain in Elven. "Bath room this way."

Drizzt nodded, and followed the green man out of the hallway and into a small living space. They passed that and the dining room, straight down another hallway, and veered over to a door on the far left.

When they reached the door Eld paused to explain slowly, "This is guest bath room. Main two upstairs, not allowed for you." Those last four words he said with much emphasis. Then, he opened the door and let Drizzt wander inside.

The drow stood mesmerized at the cold white tiles that made up the floor, the strange bowl with a crane-neck shaped tube and two switches behind it, a bigger lidded white bowl that seemed rooted to the floor, and a tub that also had the curved tube and switches. The difference between the two tubes was that this tube had some kind of button on it supported by a thin stem, and it was bigger. Up above, Drizzt could see a spout of some sort that had tiny holes poked into it.

"This, the..._sink,_" Eld struggled. He placed a hand on the edge of the bowl with the smaller tube. "You use it to wash hands." The imp did a demonstration by turning the left switch. "This is cold." He beckoned for Drizzt to feel the rushing column of water.

The drow let a calloused hand, roughened and weathered from so much fighting, touch the water. It was indeed cold.

Ahmereld turned off the current switch then turned on the right switch. "This is hot."

The water gradually warmed in Drizzt's hand until it grew so hot that he jerked it out in surprise.

"Switch them together, makes warm." Eld kept the hot one running and let the cold join in. Drizzt reluctantly reached in, and to his relief it was just right.

"Same thing for shower," Eld continued, pointing at the tub's switches. He pointed at the button and said, "Keep it raised for the shower." The imp turned it on to show the drow, who was amazed when little shoots of water raced out of the spout and hit the tub's polished floor. "Push down for bath." Eld pushed the button down and its stem shortened. The water now came flowing powerfully through the large tube, but it ended up sinking down into a drain on the tub floor.

"If you want water to fill," the imp added, "clog the drain." He twisted a knob and it sat down, preventing the water from draining out. "When it goes up as much as you want, stop switches." Eld twisted the drain knob again and the water sank away.

The imp reached over to the other side of the tub and held up what looked like a rectangular bottle, shaped so that it rested on its cap instead of the bottom. "This is _shampoo_," Eld explained. "Soap for your hair. Scrub it on like this." He opened the cap and pretended to squeeze it. With the imaginary lump of shampoo in his hand, Eld rubbed and scratched at his hair as though he were attacking it. "Let water rinse it out," he warned, "or you'll itch."

He was about to explain the soap bar then, but Drizzt told him he already knew what it was. The drow recognized it from his civilized times in Menzoberranzan, although the color was much darker than this one.

Now he turned to the big, lidded bowl. "This is the toilet. Use it for...waste." He did two demonstrations (with toilet paper, too) to show Drizzt what he meant; and the drow couldn't help but find it hilarious.

"When done," Ahmereld said with embarrassment, "push the switch to have it flush away." He pushed the switch down and the water swirled away, making a grotesque gurgling and slurping as it did so. "If your...stuff...gets stuck in and it doesn't flush," he said, "put the lid down until we fix it. Because we don't want to see it."

Drizzt nodded again, taking all this new information into consideration. The biggest question he wanted to ask the imp, was, however; _Where does all that water go? _

But he had no time to ask anything when Eld asked him back, "Which do you want, shower or bath?"

The drow considered the two choices for a moment. He was more used to taking baths, as he distantly remembered from his time in Menzoberranzan. Never did he have the water rush down from above before. Curiosity and logic made him decide on the shower. It seemed like a faster way of bathing, and was something new to be tried.

"I would prefer to shower," Drizzt said.

"Then you remember what I said?"

"Aye."

"All right. But wait." Ahmereld put a hand in front of him, as if to say 'stop', and left the bathroom. Drizzt could hear his footsteps sneakily moving through the upstairs hallway, trying not to wake up the sleeping. When the imp came back, he had in his hand a bottle similar in shape to the shampoo bottle. "Conditioner," he explained. "Softens hair, makes it easier to comb. 'Figured it would work for you, because of your's length."

Drizzt fingered a lock of his white mane. It was not very long, just enough to touch his shoulders. He accepted the conditioner bottle and watched as Ahmereld retreated out of the cramped space.

Then the door closed in on the drow, leaving him alone in the dimly lit space...unarmed...and no Guenhwyvar.

Almost immediately, the drow regretted his decision to give up the panther. Even though their separation would be temporary; which was, perhaps now, an unlikely thing; Drizzt felt the urge to run out, attack Ahnnie, and take back his beloved friend. They would be together again, a force to be reckoned with, and none of these 'magicians' that Ahnnie mentioned sharing the house with would dare stop them.

But he instantly shook his head at the thought; No! Ahnnie was innocent. She took Guenhwyvar because he pratically asked her to, because she _needed _to, in order to find out his purpose; and the look in her eyes when she held the figurine in her hand...Drizzt could swear it was something along the lines of pity. Perhaps his plea to have Guenhwyvar returned to him had struck her somehow. He gave a shrug of his muscled shoulders; only time would tell; and proceeded to undress for the shower.

* * *

"What are you doing, Ahnnie?"

"I'm trying to de-odorize these boots."

When Ahmereld finally left Drizzt in the shower, he had once again snuck upstairs to grab a clean pair of pajamas and underwear for the drow. There was no way Ahnnie or any of her family would appreciate the stink the drow would give off while wearing his old clothes, which Eld figured he hadn't taken off for ten years either. Now, coming back from his little clothes-stealing trip, he found his ward shaking a can of shoe deodorizer spray for another shower of fragrant chemicals.

"I don't think he'll appreciate that," Ahmereld remarked as he went past her to the guest bathroom. "He won't be used to all the suspicious factory-made chemicals you just used. He'll suspect us of poisoning him."

Ahnnie reached for a can of Glade, vanilla scented, and sprayed it in the air above the boots. One by one, the flies were growing disinterested, but they did not escape alive. _Fwap! _The girl had a fly-swatter at the beck and call of her hands. "Ha! Take that, you bugs!" she said triumphantly.

Eld returned from the bathroom and was now carrying a heap of smelly old clothes, also known as, Drizzt's dirty tunic, breeches, drow boxers (at least that's what it looked like), armor, and cloak. "Done poisoning him?" he asked sarcastically.

"I'm done," she said, ignoring the joke. She got up and wiped her hands, as though she had been doing hard work. "What's that for?"

"The laundry, duh!"

Ahnnie's eyes boggled. "What! You're gonna put armor in the wash?"

"Well, not the armor." Eld gently lifted the metallic mithral mesh-chain and set it on the floor. "And you're wrong about _me _doing it."

"So it's me," she said dryly.

"Yes! I've gotta make sure the guest room is ready." The imp plopped the dirty clothes into his ward's arms, which had been instinctively outstretched to receive them. "Make sure to use a gentle cycle, and not too much detergent!" he called over his shoulder when he was well down the hallway.

"You make a really good guardian, you know," Ahnnie grumbled sarcastically to herself. But her lips were curved in a smile, and they still were when she lumbered into the laundry room and dumped the dirty clothes into the wash machine. She had the mithral armor balled up in the corner under some old white sheets for the sole purpose of hiding them so that she could show them to Grandpa the next morning without Drizzt or any other person/creature getting to them first.

When the warm water filled up in the machine, the dust from the clothes instantly seeped away and, to her utter surprise, colored the water _black_.

"They're gonna need one heck of a wash," she remarked to herself. Taking a laundry basket up to her side, she fished the clothes out into the basket and drained the water from the machine. After she filled it up once more, she placed a dust-cleaning spell on the wet clothes and put them back in; luckily, they made the water less murky the second time. _Thank goodness I remembered that spell Grandpa taught me, _Ahnnie thought.

Following Ahmereld's advice, Ahnnie tipped only a tenth amount of detergent than she would normally use. As the water churned and turned soapy, she closed down the lid and turned around to exit the laundry room. She was tired, it was one in the morning, and she could always dry the clothes in the morning, so there was no need to keep a persistent watch over them. Little did she know that Drizzt was silently walking around the corner and unexpectedly bumped into him.

"Xin lỗi!" (Pronounciation: _Sin Lo-ee) _She apologized in Vietnamese, thinking that it was her older brother, Huynh (Pronounciation: _Hwin_). She had made the misconception upon seeing the drow in her brother's pajamas. It was short-lived, though, when she remembered that Huynh was fast asleep upstairs and that the current wearer of the pajamas had ebony black skin and snow-white hair.

"I do not understand," the drow said helplessly.

"Oops," she said, switching back to Elven. "Guess that caught you off-guard, huh?"

Fresh out of the shower, smelling like roses, and wearing a set of cloudy skies pajamas, the dark elf looked less dangerous. His thick mane of hair was plastered wetly about his face and neck, flattening his head a bit, so that it made him look a little smaller. After examining him mentally for some time, Ahnnie was beginning to wonder why the drow's rosy smell smelt so much like the rose scented shampoo and conditioner she was currently using.

"I am never off my guard," Drizzt said. "At least, I try not to be. I always watch out for imminent danger."

"No, I mean...never mind." Ahnnie made sure to slowly pass by the drow, unsure of what he would try to do. She had heard stories of drow from her Grandpa and Elwing, so she was not sure how to act with a live drow right there in the hallway. She was beginning to regret letting the beryl handcuffs off his slender, coal-black wrists.

Drizzt arched an eyebrow and walked swiftly after her. "Pushing that matter aside, I would also like to talk to you of something..."

"What?" she snapped nervously.

The drow seemed taken aback. "I...If it is not convenient..."

The human girl quickly realized her mistake when she saw the hurt in his lavender eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "I was just...thinking...and..." Gods, where was Eld when she needed him now? "You can talk to me about anything." Her brown eyes quickly saw the living room as the safest place; Grandpa always had a barrier around the area; and gestured for Drizzt to follow. "Let's talk over here."

With both drow and human perched comfortably on the soft couches, Ahnnie began to relax.

"So, what was it you wanted to say?"

"I was..._am_...curious...about your ability to speak..." Drizzt gestured helplessly, wondering what to call the language. It was similar to drow but sounded different from drow. His best guess was that it was Elf, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"Elven?"

"Yes."

Ahnnie heaved a sigh. "Well...I know dwarf, some goblin, and mermaid too. My Grandpa's pushed me, my brother, and my cousins to learn them ever since we were little kids."

"Why does he require that of you all?"

"So we can communicate each of those races. Why else?"

Drizzt paused and remembered the kooky old human wizard who had enchanted Clacker. The old man had known how to speak drow, so compared to Ahnnie that didn't seem so strange; perhaps all human magic-users had to learn a score of languages from different humanoid races. "Is it because you are all wizards?"

"Maybe."

"And of Guenhwyvar," the drow continued, remembering the panther. "Where is she?"

"Huh?"

"The panther."

Ahnnie's memory flashed back to the black feline that had leapt up at her, teeth bared for her neck. Eld had deflected the creature in time with his staff, saving his ward from becoming jungle-cat food. "Wha...? That thing was a _she_?"

"Guenhwyvar is not a thing," Drizzt said offendedly.

"I...I'm sorry." Ahnnie tried not to gulp. A dangerous light had just then flashed in the drow's purple eyes, making her wonder whether he really was handicapped at their hands, being unarmed and all. "I did not mean to say such things. I just assumed Gwenhi...Gwenhwee...er, the panther, to be male because of how muscly it was. And to answer your question, he...she's...right here in my pocket." She took the figurine out to show him that she was not lying. Her pockets were enchanted to hold more than just pocket-sized items, so they never bulged when she put so much as a big book in one of them. Then she quickly stuffed the onyx cat back in.

Drizzt's eyes softened at the desired but brief sight of his dear friend. Pangs of loneliness erupted within him again, even though he was having a (so far) peaceful talk with a young human. Ahnnie saw the sadness in his deep purple orbs so clearly she could not help but feel sorry for him. She felt her fear of this drow dissipating slowly at his innocently sorrowful face.

When the tension became unbearable, however, Ahnnie shook her head and jumped up from her seat, clapping her hands loudly together.

"Ok! So! You hungry?"

The drow looked down to his stomach, as if it could answer him. Now he looked a little more hopeful. "I suppose," he said. "Perhaps a little," he added.

"Hold on just a minute." Ahnnie made sure Drizzt stayed intact in his seat and ran off to find Eld. He indeed was in the guest room, fluffing up pillows and picking up trash. (_Wait, trash? _Ahnnie thought.) He only noticed his ward at the doorway when he turned around to put the last candy wrapper in the wastebasket.

"Oh, hello, Ahnnie," he said in English. He was more flexible at English, and Ahnnie couldn't understand imp.

"Hello, Eld," she said. "Guest room ready yet?"

"Ready freddy."

"Good! Now get Drizzt in. He's waiting in the living room." Ahnnie hurriedly turned away and raced for the kitchen. "Tell him I'll bring his food in!"

"Oh, so now we're giving him room service?" Eld said after her, but she didn't hear. "Great," he mumbled. "I'll have to put extra locks on his door, for sure!"

Ahmereld raced to the living room and found Drizzt still sitting there, nice and clean in his new cloudy skies pjs, and curiously fingering a lock of his white hair; probably because it was now very soft and fragrant. Eld had, of no mean intentions, grabbed a woman's conditioner for the drow. There was just no other kind in the house because all the other men had short and managable hair. So even though Drizzt used a man's shampoo, the scent of roses overpowered it.

"Dark elf," Eld said. "Come into guest room."

He led Drizzt into the room, a nice little light yellow space with a matching bed and desk. At the same moment Ahmereld could hear Ahnnie slamming the microwave door shut, and the noisy beeps that ensued as she pressed its buttons to reheat some food.

"Like?" Eld asked him.

"I do like it," Drizzt remarked. "Thank you." He took slow and cautious steps up towards the bed, feeling that if he went stomped too hard the dream would disappear. A bed! Tonight, he was to sleep in a bed! For ten long years, the drow had not felt the comforts of blankets or pillows, not since he left Menzoberranzan. Seeing a fluffy-looking bed now, he felt it was just too good to be true. But when he sat atop the fleece comforters, he knew he wasn't dreaming.

Ahnnie came in soon with a plate of hot food that seemed strange to the drow; some sort of white pellets, a slab of meat, and a swirl of greens. It smelled appetizing, yet seemed strange.

"This is what I could find from the leftovers," she explained to the drow. "The white stuff is rice...it's a type of grain...which, in turn, is a type of plant that grows from the ground! And this is Cousin Val's special korean barbeque steak, and that's the Rau Muống (Pronounciation: _r-OW moo-ung_) I made. It's a vegetable, like spinach but different, and I cooked it with garlic and some salt, so its not as disgusting as plain spinach. I hope you like it."

Drizzt took the plate and set it on his lap, using his fork to push around the rice a bit before heaving some up into his mouth. It was actually quite good.

"What are we, a fancy restaurant?" Eld retorted in English.

"We can't let him starve," Ahnnie answered.

"What happened to your fear of the drow?"

"Well..." Ahnnie's eyes trailed away, not meeting her guardian's harsh green orbs. "I'm still scared, of course. But he just seems so...different. Innocent, even!"

"Don't you know that drow are crafty liars?"

"Well, your clothes can't lie!" Ahnnie protested.

"What?"

Then she explained to Ahmereld how Drizzt's old clothes turned the laundry water pitch black, and how it was only due to magic that they were swishing in the soapy wash at this moment. "That does back up his claim of living away from his city for ten years, you know."

"That could happen from months of traveling," Eld argued. "You can't tell."

"I don't want to argue anymore," she pouted, now seeing how futile it was to change Eld's mind. "We'll show him to Grandpa tomorrow and see what he decides. So good night."

"Good night," Eld mumbled softly, and tip-toed up to place a little kiss on her forehead.

"Wha...what...in front of a guest, too! How old do you think I am, three?" Ahnnie protested with embarrassment. "I'm fifteen!"

Eld smiled and stood at the doorway, waiting for her to exit.

"Good night, drow," Ahnnie, still beet red, said in Elven to Drizzt, who was stuffing quantities of rice, meat, and Rau Muống into his mouth with considerable speed. "Just clap twice to turn the lights off. There is a bathroom behind that door if you need it. Yes, that one on the right. And when you're done eating, set the plate on the desk."

Drizzt nodded and continued eating, watching the two of them, human and imp, close the door, then listened as they placed a multitude of locks around it. Several times he heard a magic incantation being used.

* * *

That night, Drizzt could barely sleep. The food was so good, the blankets so comfortable, the air so still...everything was just so unlike Menzoberranzan. It was not on a level of physical quality that incurred these thougts; materially, Menzoberranzan offered better; but it was of how everything just calmed his soul. He had seen, from the corner of his eye, the affection Eld showed to Ahnnie before they left. He couldn't understand what they were saying, but he was sure Ahnnie had (playfully) reminded Eld that she was too old for those goodnight kisses.

The relationship they shared resembeled something almost parental. Instantly, Drizzt's thoughts turned to Zaknafein, his mentor, his friend, and his father...

He turned over onto his side, trying to fight tears that were coming ten years too late.


	3. Family Breakfast

**Introducing the Quang/Guan children in this chapter!**

Also. I changed the title of the fanfic because I didn't see how the old one would help the story at all...it sounded really stupid too...but I hope you all enjoy the story either way. And please review!

* * *

Drizzt awoke to suddenly intense brightness and a cacophony of strange chirping noises outside. He pulled the soft blanket over his head for relief and found it much more acceptable this way. The dreams he had when he finally fell asleep that night were no longer haunted by Zaknafein's spirit-wraith or his mother's scheming smile. They were inhabited by Belwar Dissengulp and Clacker, in a much happier dream, and this time two new forms joined in. He was just savoring the last dregs of the dream when a sudden banging and clanging signaled someone trying to gain entry into his room!

The nimble drow quickly leapt off the bed, ignoring the blanket and two pillows spilling to the ground, and tried to unsheathe his scimitars, only to remember that he had willingly given them up the other night. Then, as his eyes opened wider to the scene in the infrared spectrum, he started to feel the sting and burn of the surrounding light and issued forth a pained howl.

When Ahnnie finally got rid of the chains and magic barrier she and Eld put up the other night, she opened the door and found Drizzt groveling on the ground, his two hands shielding his sensitive eyes.

"Oh no!" She quickly dropped the spatula in her hand and jumped to the drow's side, placing her hands on his shoulders to steady him. "Are you all right? Drizzt?"

The drow elf panted and groaned as he switched his eyesight to see in the light. It still hurt, but not as much as it had in infrared. When he saw the young girl kneeling beside him, the sudden pain he experienced made his hunter side, the unemotional killing machine part of him he used to survive the Underdark, suddenly rear its head up. Drizzt quickly wrenched himself away from the girl's comforting grip and wobbled slowly up onto his bare feet.

"Drizzt?" Ahnnie asked.

For the first time since she and Eld had taken him, Drizzt noticed that the young girl mispronounced his name as "drizzit". It sounded so comical that he had to smile despite his teary eyes. The sudden new waves of comfort calmed him and pushed the hunter aside, to his greatest relief.

"I am fine," he finally said. "There is no need to worry."

The human girl picked up the fallen spatula with a wide grin. "Oh, good, because I was just talking with my brother about you, and he didn't believe at all that you are a drow, so I wanted to invite you to hve breakfast with me and prove it to him once and for all."

Drizzt blinked.

"My cousin, too," she added.

The dark elf honestly didn't know what to say.

Ahnnie grinned again, and this time, broke into a hearty laughter that left her gasping for breath. "Sorry! It's just...it's just...the look you got on your face!"

Drizzt slowly touched his face to feel any differences in it. "I do not see what is the matter..."

"I joked with you," the girl explained.

"Of what?"

"You...you didn't get it?"

"I apologize..." She had joked with him? When? How?

Ahnnie shrugged. "Oh well, at least you didn't beat me up like a normal drow would." She didn't seem to notice Drizzt's wince as she used her free hand to grab the drow's wrist. "Come on, it's eggs and ham today. Hurry before Huynh eats it all up!"

"But I-"

"Didn't brush your teeth yet? That's fine, as long as you do it later."

Drizzt scrunched up his eyebrows. He tried to see himself cleaning his teeth with a hairbrush, but it just wasn't possible. Shaking that away, he said, "No, I meant that I made a mess of the bed..."

"No worries! I'll get to that later!"

They soon reached the dining room, a small hardwood space next to the kitchen with a round table laden with food and seats for seven, of which three were currently filled by similar black-haired yellow-skinned humans, and one by Eld. There was also a little chair supported on thin but yard-length wooden beams. The seat was too small for any normal human or humanoid, and Drizzt quickly saw that it was occupied by a human baby boy.

Drizzt could see each of the occupant's expressions widen as he stumbled into view after Ahnnie. Eld, who had been sipping coffee, sprayed his mouthful all out on his french toast, making the adjacently seated baby laugh.

"Ahnnie!" He choked.

"_Quang Phuong Anh!_" (Pronounciation: w-AH-ng fuh-UNG AH-n) The oldest human, a boy, sputtered.

"Ahnnie..." The second oldest, a curvaceous and beautiful girl, barely had the breath to yell it all out.

The third human, a little girl of about ten years, looked from person to person to Drizzt. "What? Did Cousin Ahnnie do something wrong?" she asked in English.

The baby merely screeched out its ecstasy and laughed.

Drizzt flinched from their responses, feeling guilty that they were all directed at Ahnnie. He knew he was the reason of such outrage. But he knew not how to get out of it, much less quell it.

"Guys, guys, calm down!" Ahnnie said. She ignored the looks she got as she continued speaking in Elven. "You didn't believe me at first, but now you have him; Drizzt Do'Urden, a drow!" She secretly patted the dark elf's arm to tell him she didn't mean to show him off, but he was too stunned to notice. "He'll be joining us here so-"

"No!" The human boy bellowed so loudly the baby began to cry.

"_Anh hai!_" (Pronounciation: AH-n, Hai with the 'ai' vowel as in 'high'. Means 'big brother'.) Ahnnie protested. "Huynh, don't be so rude! He's not a bad drow, at least not a wild one. He almost cried last night when I showed him his Gwenhwi...hwee...panther then took it back!"

"I heard about that," Huynh seethed. "And you're probably doing this for him right now because you feel guilty." The flinch in Ahnnie's posture confirmed that. "But drow are very _shrewd, crafty, and deceitful_." Drizzt winced at the words. "You shouldn't trust one so easily! Jeez, if I had known you'd be finding a drow, I would've gone to inspect the cave instead!"

"It's just like great-grandmother said," the other human girl said softly. "_Tonight he shall come, the dark that is light..._"

"Drow?" the ten-year-old girl piped up. "This Drizzit Do'Urden's a drow?" Another person who mispronounced his name. Drizzt tried not to smile.

"Yes," Huynh said. "And remember that they are dangerous."

"Please, please!" Ahnnie begged. "It's a matter of health for him, so just let him join!"

"How?" her brother countered.

"The yellow of the guest bedroom and filtering sunlight will burn his eyes out. Everything is much cooler-looking here so I wanted-"

"He's better off blind!"

"No he's not!"

"Yes he is!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"You're so cruel!"

"You're too gullible!"

"Haven't you been told not to judge a book by its cover?"

"I don't follow that when all the contents are the same masochist and evil storylines!"

"Drizzt's not a story!"

"Don't take that literall-"

The distressed baby boy unleashed his magic and sent a pancake flying from the ten-year-old's plate straight to Huynh's face. Now he laughed once again.

"Go Draky!" the little girl, sitting next to him, cheered.

"Is no one getting the point?" Huynh asked angrily, wiping syrup and butter off his face.

"Hold it!" The beautiful human girl, tossing her black wavy curls over her shoulder, stood up suddenly.

"What is it, Val?" Eld asked.

"Valkyrie," the girl corrected. "And I just noticed one thing. About _Ba Co's_ (Pronounced: Bah C-oh, means great grandmother) prophecy." She cleared her throat, adjusted her spectacles, and continued, "_Tonight he shall come, the dark that is light._ Grandpa let Ahnnie inspect the cave last midnight only because the forthcoming visitor, dark that is light, is, well, light."

"So Drizzt is not completely drow-dark!" Ahnnie completed with a broad smile.

"Yes, indeed," Valkyrie said. "As much as I hate to admit it about drow, this one is particularly different. Eld confirmed it too. He willingly gave up his weapons and summons statuette. He didn't attack. What sort of drow would do that?"

Drizzt sighed a sigh of relief, and silently said his thanks to this absent prophetic great-grandmother of theirs.

"So does that mean we have a new addition?" the little girl asked.

"I believe so, Kirin." Valkyrie gave a small smile at the drow then quickly sat down.

Ahnnie took a chair for herself, and invited Drizzt to sit next to her. The whole group now took over six chairs, leaving one more empty.

The drow surveyed each of the humans' looks, especially the hot-headed Huynh's, for any other reaction. He was amazed when even the big brother looked much more humbled and continued eating his breakfast casually, if not a bit roughly. These prohpecies...they must be very powerful and have at least a hundred percent of credibility to make the children believe them so readily.

But Drizzt did not sense the end of it, not at all, and his suspicions were confirmed when Huynh said, "Know this, drow, that we are taking you to our Grandfather after this meal. Prophecy or not, you're still a drow."

Drizzt sighed and poked sadly at his scrambled eggs.


	4. Decision of the Elders

Thanks to the help of my first ever reviewer, I noticed that I made a mistake on the fantasy languages. Elven, to be precise. I made it a little too easy. I thought about it for a while and decided on a solution. Which is in this chapter. Depending on how you feel, it may not be acceptable enough...but I feel too tired to go back to fix the other three chapters so bear with me, please.

**I'm reading The Crystal Shard now! **Finally.

Oh, and Drizzt fans/fangirls...don't get angry with me this chapter...Or should I say, don't get angry with Grandpa. He's old. Cut him some slack.

* * *

"The drow's wearing my pajamas," Huynh hissed into his little sister's ear as they and their cousin Valkyrie washed the dishes. Huynh cleaned, Ahnnie dried, and Valkyrie organized.

"And you notice now?" Ahnnie asked.

The two of them sent covert glances the drow's way. Drizzt was currently leaning against the dining room wall, arms crossed, looking serious and contemplative. The effect was diminished with his bedhead and ridiculous pjs, but that didn't stop _some _people from getting suspicious.

"Look at him," Huynh said. "He's thinking...of killing us."

"If he were, he would've done it by now! Or last night, for that matter! Eld and I wouldn't have escaped alive."

"True, but you probably blabbed out the fact that we're magicians to him, didn't you?"

"...So?"

"So he thinks killing a whole family of wizards is gonna be some kind of a treat. Our very existence is probably giving him a hope for bloodlust right now."

Ahnnie thought that over, but there was no way she could think of Drizzt as a mindless and bloody killing machine. She still believed that drow were evil but...not this one. Not Drizzt Do'Urden! Besides, if he tried anything, she was the keeper of Guenhwyvar. And wasn't Guenhwyvar his prized possession, if not his friend?

"I believe in great-grandmother's prophecy," Valkyrie said.

"As do I!" Huynh exclaimed. "But prophecies are like riddles, and riddles are never as they seem! There may be something else to it. Perhaps the 'light' part is just his hair."

"That doesn't make sense," Ahnnie said.

"Prophecies border on what's inside of someone's soul," Valkyrie said, "and only hint at the appearance. If you say it like that, then-"

"Yeah, yeah, it's not true," Huynh grumbled.

"-its not worth believing," Valkyrie carried on, undaunted.

"Besides, Ba Co's eyes glowed gold like they always do for prophecies, and she pointed at the Cave." Ahnnie wiped the last dish and handed it to Valkyrie. "Usually she points at the Gate or somewhere in the sky. Just 'cause this time's different doesn't make it inaccurate."

"The weather man makes errors too," Huynh argued, but he was faltering.

"Great-grandma's not a weatherman," Ahnnie giggled.

"She receives her information elsewhere," Valkyrie added with an incredulous look at Ahnnie. "A more solid, infallible source."

"Ok, ok!" Huynh shut off the sink and wiped his hands on the rag Ahnnie offered. "Grandpa'll decide!"

At that moment, Kirin, Valkyrie's little sister, came in carrying Drake, the baby. "Draky's got a smelly diaper!" she exclaimed.

"I'm coming!" Ahnnie said. "I have to get Drizzt's clothes out of the dryer anyway," she explained to her cousins and brother. "His clothes are the closest thing he has to something formal. Presentation counts, you know."

Huynh's jaw dropped. "You want to dress up the drow?"

"Would you want him walking around and wearing your extra set of pajamas for the rest of the day?"

The eighteen-year-old considered that. "No."

"I'm curious," Valkyrie admitted. "I've never seen drow clothing before."

"Val's on my side!" Ahnnie whooped, and scooping Drake out of Kirin's arms, ran for the baby's changing room.

The remaining teenagers, feeling a little awkward, turned to Drizzt, who was now staring right back at them.

"Staring contest?" Kirin suggested.

"Go tell Grandpa we're coming up soon," Huynh said, "with a drow."

"And that he was Ahnnie and Eld's discovery," Valkyrie added.

The little girl cocked her head to the side, and looked at the wall clock. "We're gonna be late for school..."

"We'll go later," her older sister said. "Now hurry!"

Kirin shrugged. "I hate going on the bus anyway." Then she ran off for the stairs.

Val sighed and and wrung her fingers, obviously confused with what she should say. Huynh merely grunted and folded his arms over his chest, unnoticeably mimicking Drizzt, to make himself look tough.

"Did you enjoy breakfast?" Valkyrie asked him in Mountain Elven (for that was the dialect they were using).

"The food was acceptable," Drizzt replied.

"It wasn't good?" Val asked him, confused.

The drow shrugged and looked down at his toes. "It has been a long time since I have ever had anything considered 'good'. These eggs and ham are quite new to me, so I have no special reaction. But I can tell you one thing." He looked back up again at the human girl. "Your korean barbeque is excellent."

"Thank you." Valkyrie adjusted her glasses and tried not to smile too widely.

"How do you know about that?" Huynh asked him suspiciously.

Drizzt worried that he might get Ahnnie in trouble with his answer, but figuring that her brother would show concern for her instead of malice, he said, "Ahnnie gave me food last night."

Silence...

"Do not blame her," the drow added when no one said anything.

"What's there to blame?" Valkyrie said. "She was being nice."

"To the wrong person."

The girl swatted her cousin's arm. "Huynh!"

"I am _seriously_ gonna get that girl," the boy continued in English. "Giving food to a drow...for goodness' sake, is she that dumb?" Switching languages, he said, "Did you eat out here last night?"

"No, in the guest room," Drizzt said.

"Was Eld with her?"

"He was there even before she came with the food, and he stayed."

"Good grief." Huynh shook his head. "Knowing her, she did all that without her guardian's consent."

"Does your guardian have to be the factor of all your decisions?" Val challenged. "If I remember correctly, you sometimes do things without Namiq's consent, too."

"But not anything as stupid as helping a drow."

Drizzt pursed his lips and turned his head away. Huynh could not have even begun imagined the pain the drow felt from such words. Muttering softly, the dark elf said, "I am in need of the bath room," and ambled off to the said place.

* * *

Ahnnie, finished with Drake, headed for the laundry room to see how the drow clothes were doing. She had already taken them out of the wash and into the dryer at around six in the morning; now it was seven thirty. The buzzer went off when she was cooking breakfast, but she hadn't the time to take them out, especially when Kirin ordered pancakes last-minute.

"Oh no," she gasped when she took the garments out. The clothes (and boxers, whatever they were) were fine, but the cloak, as she could tell from the remaining hood, was in tatters. Smoking tatters.

The girl wrinkled her nose at the burnt smell the cloak was giving off. She was quite surprised that the damaged garment had not yet set the drying machine on fire, which would then burn the room, spreading to the living room, and from there, to the whole house; but she wasn't about to question the good luck anytime soon.

After using a can of Glade to beat the odor, she used her magic to separate the undamaged clothes from the burnt pieces, and was thus presented with a bit of a dilemna as she concentrated on the pile of drow-cloak.

What would she tell Drizzt?

_As far as I know from the drow, _Ahnnie thought, _their cloaks help shield them from sight deep down in the caves. But it wouldn't be much help up here, in the world of sunlight. So, um, he won't need it anymore, I suppose...this isn't the Underdark..._

_Then I'll just tell him! What's the harm?_

"Cousin Ahnnie!" Kirin announced her arrival and skidded to a stop. "I just told Grandpa that we were coming up soon with Drizzt, and Huynh said you'd be here, and...whoa." The girl's almond shaped eyes rested on the cloak pile. "Were you angry?"

"I wouldn't do that," Ahnnie said. "It's the dryer's fault."

"Well, I just came to tell you I'd bring up Draky right now." Kirin slowly backed out of the room. "Oh, um...there's a flame coming out of the pile..."

"What!" Ahnnie whirled around and faced the tatters, now starting to flare up in orange-red fire. "How's that supposed to happen? I already took it out from the dryer! Sheesh!"

She guessed it was probaby because the garments had still been smoking and that the wind of the air circulation in their house blew on them, so she simply lifted her foot and stamped the fire out. After all, fire was her specialty.

But breaking bad news to people tactfully was not.

* * *

Upstairs in the meditation room, Kirin and Draky sat next to Valkyrie, who was on Huynh's left, and Ahnnie took her place on his right. All the children's guardians were also there, sitting next to their wards; Leoht the miniature Lung Dragon on Kirin's lap, Fuyumi the yuki-onna holding Draky, Aubaine the windsoul next to Valkyrie, Namiq the winter wolf with a paw on Huynh's foot, and Ahmereld the imp staring with grave importance at the strong yet elderly form sitting in the wheelchair.

Even the great-grandparents were present, in their own separate wheelchairs, looking more lost and confused than serious and dignified. But even though they were senile, they were just as important to this meeting as their son, the childrens' grandfather, was, and sometimes (more like, rarely) they did made sense.

Drizzt Do'Urden, the subject of their conference, had not come up yet, mostly because he was still busy gawking at the battered remains of his _piwafwi_. The dark elf was not expected to anyway, because Grandpa Long Ha (_Loh-m Hah_) had something important to say to everyone first.

"My grandchildren," Long Ha began. "There is a truth I must tell you."

The children looked at each other for a split second, then turned back to their grandsire. The great-grandparents did the same thing, but that went unnoticed.

"What is it?" Huynh asked, being the eldest boy and all.

"Do you all remember Kellindil?"

A light of recognition passed through the eyes of the three oldest children of the family.

"Of course we do!" Ahnnie exclaimed. "He's our archery tutor whenever he stays."

"He always brings back souveniers from his trips," Val remembered. "I remember that one time he went to Egypt and found us all some _khopesh _swords."

"And he was the one who taught us how to speak Mountain Elven," Huynh added. "He said it was the closest thing to drow. And voila, it really was."

"Really?" Ahnnie asked nervously.

Grandpa smiled at her. "You only told the drow that it was just 'Elven' because you couldn't remember its true name, didn't you?"

"Uh...well...heh?" The girl gave a slight shrug.

"Pardon her," Eld said. "I mentioned it like that as well..."

The old man sighed and pat his cane, which he always had with him even though he couldn't walk anymore. "Phuong Anh, you are quick to observe, but never do you remember any names. You ought to fix that before you grow up and go to college."

"Yes, Grandpa," Ahnnie said.

"Back to my topic." Long Ha cleared his throat and tapped his cane rhythmically on the floor. "You are all correct about Kellindil, of course; he has been a family friend for such a long time; but there is something he and I agreed to, long ago when Huynh and Valkyrie were just babies."

"Babies!" Great-grandmother exlcaimed, showing off her toothless gums as she did so. "I love babies."

"Rabies?" Great-grandfather asked. (Note: The Vietnamese words for 'babies' and 'rabies' do not sound the same. This just a joke in the English language for the sake of you readers.)

"Enough already," Aubaine remarked softly in her windy voice, blowing a slight breeze throughout the room.

"Freddy?" Great-grandfather asked again.

Ignoring his father, Long Ha went on, "The thing is...well, Kellindil has a knowledge of one specific language that I considered a taboo at the time. I did not want any of you learning it for fear of having to jinx the family. But, as it is with everything..." His old brown eyes rested on the scenery outside of the window. "...we must always be prepared. So I told Kellindil to prepare you three." He pointed a wrinkled finger at his three oldest grandchildren.

"Mountain Elven is forbidden?" Ahnnie asked confusedly.

Huynh swatted her arm. "Shh!"

"What you have been saying to the drow," Long Ha said, "is not really Mountain Elven."

A silence ran through the group, even the great-grandparents. But it was broken quickly by Huynh: "Are we supposed to be surprised?"

Long Ha shrugged. "Would you be surprised if I told you that Kellindil taught you Drow instead?"

The teenager's eyes looked as though they would pop out of his skull. "_What?_"

"Kellindil knows how to speak drow?" Ahnnie asked, getting excited. "That's so cool!"

Valkyrie shrugged. "We never met any Mountain Elves anyway."

"They all speak a variation of Forest Elven," Long Ha explained, "so you probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference."

"But why did you keep that a secret?" Ahnnie asked.

"Will I get to learn it too?" Kirin piped in.

"One at a time, please," the grandfather reminded them. "Kirin, you'll learn it in due time, especially with a drow now amongst us. And as for the other question..." He sighed. "As I said, I did not want to jinx the family. But the drow raid that happened when my son"-who was Ahnnie and Huynh's father-"and daughter"-Valkyrie and Kirin's mother-"were still young convinced me otherwise. So I sent for Kellindil to help. He purposefully taught you the words with a slight twist so as not to scare you."

"With the fact that we know how to speak the language of the devil," Huynh finished, with his own opinion more than fact.

"No wonder talking to Drizzt was so easy," Ahnnie said.

"It wasn't for me," Eld mumbled.

"It's just ilke taking the short 'i' vowels in, let's say, English, and using the 'ee' sounds instead," Valkyrie commented. " 'Eet ees nice to meet you.' I can still understand that."

"Uh, hey, what's that drow doing?" Huynh pointed to Long Ha's scrying mirror, which was normally used as a security camera. In the mirror was an image of Drizzt being pushed up the stairs by some invisible force. The way he struggled against it made it look like he was doing a funny tribal dance.

"Oh, I'm summoning him," Long Ha explained. "He should be bursting through the door anytime soon now." The old man looked down at his wristwatch.

"I'll open the doors for him then!" Ahnnie said, making to get up. But she was abruptly pulled down by Eld.

"The doors actually break the momentum," Long Ha said to his second youngest granddaughter. "If you leave them open, he'll end up crashing into the wall or flying out the window."

"That never happens when you summoned any of us," she said, but by now she and the others understood. He was testing the drow to see how ferocious the elf could get. Of course, Drizzt cuold not have harmed them in any way because of the barrier around and in the room, but if what Ahnnie and Eld have said was true then this drow was more of a fighter than a wizard. He would then not be able to sense the magic, which was too strongly concealed.

Three seconds later, a screaming drow hit the doors and sent splintered wood flying everywhere in the room.

* * *

Drizzt was on his knees, breathing heavily and feeling so very...shocked. He had just finished changing into his standard tunic and breeches, but just when he was contemplating the loss of his _piwafwi_, he suddenly was being pushed up the stairs and speeding forward towards some closed double-doors, which he quickly realized that _he _had destroyed. And then he remembered that there was a baby and a child, and that he might have hurt them with the shards of the door! That thought outweighed whatever instincts his hunter side tried to stir up.

"Is anyone hurt?" was the first thing he said. "Draky, Kirin," Drizzt recited, remembering the names used at the breakfast table. "Did I hurt them?"

Luckily, the barrier left the wooden splinters framing a perfect circle around the Quang/Guan family. To emphasize the fact of their safety, Draky clapped his hands.

"Thank goodness," the drow sighed in relief.

Apparently, his actions shocked Long Ha, for the old man's jaw was wide open.

"What did I tell you?" Ahnnie said, digging an elbow into her big brother's ribs. "He's nice!"

"Hm." Huynh pushed her elbow away.

Drizzt quickly stood up, also noticing that he was not hurt at all. The same perfect circle was revealed to be around him from the pieces of door that lay a good distance away from his feet. The drow took a step forward, and his protective circle pushed at the other shards as he did so.

Long Ha shook himself to regain his composure and pointed a finger at the empty doorway. "Repair." The broken pieces of door floated from the ground and reformed at its hinges, fast becoming again the double-doors it had once been.

"Can he swim?" Great-grandmother asked with a great deal of concern in her native tongue. "I don't want him to die of electrocution."

The drow obviously did not understand a word she was saying, so he turned to Ahnnie and Eld for support.

"She is hoping that you know how to swim," Ahnnie explained in what she now knew to be twisted drow, "because she doesn't want you to be hit by lightning."

"What?"

"I know, I don't get it either. But hey, enough with that; Drizzt, did you know we're actually speaking to you in drow?"

"You are?" Drizzt asked, confused.

"Ahnnie!" Huynh pulled his little sister back. "Be quiet. Let Grandpa do the talking."

"Kay, fine."

Long Ha cleared his throat, silencing his grandchildren (and parents), and motioned for Drizzt to come stand at the center of the room.

The dark elf obeyed, and slowly took notice of his surroundings. There were low shelves all around the room on which shiny statues and idols sat or stood, with small brass pots squatting in front of them. The biggest statue was at the front of the room; a golden-colored sculpture of a man, draped from the right shoulder with a simple swath of cloth, having what looked like beads for hair, and sitting cross-legged. One hand was held up with the index and middle finger touching; the other rested on his right knee. Drizzt, remembering Lolth, wondered what this deity meant.

"Drow," Long Ha said.

Drizzt wrenched his attention away from the god. "That is what I am."

"Tell us," he said, "of your life."

The drow raised an eyebrow, but did so anyway, starting from his earliest memories as page prince of House Do'Urden. He started with his family members, and with the fact that he was lucky to have had Nalfein, the previous Do'Urden elderboy, die at Dinin's hands so that he himself could be spared from being sacrificed to Lolth. He told of Zaknafein, especially. The thrill of their practice fights filled him up once again as he told the listening family of the warmth he felt in the weapons master. He also told them that Zak was his father, receiving some shocked gasps from Ahnnie and Val (who translated for Kirin).

He recalled the details of Melee-Magthere, his first meeting with Guenhwyvar and the panther's master at the time, Masoj Hun'ett ("What kind of name is _Massage_?" Huynh sneered), also the first drow he had ever killed. Eld had Ahnnie's ears covered and Val stopped translating for Kirin when the drow retold of the graduation ceremony and Vierna's inappropriate intentions.

Then his tone became serious as the story went to the moment he found out about Zaknafein's death and left Menzoberranzan for good. He begrudgingly informed them of his hunter instincts, and how ashamed he was of it. It took a few minutes before he mentioned meeting up with Belwar in the svirfneblin city, and even longer to get to the part where Clacker came in. Eventually, Drizzt had to tell everyone of his fight with Zaknafein's spirit-wraith and his decision to enter the surface world.

"That is when you found me," Drizzt said pointedly to Ahnnie and Eld. "And now I am here."

Long Ha nodded, and cleared his throat for the hundredth time this day and said, "Now, I shall tell you of ours."

"Grandpa..." Valkyrie looked up helplessly at him.

"I will not tell of anything too personal," he reassured her, and then began. He had to inform the drow first of the aging system of humans, a bit of Vietnam's and China's ancient history, of all 50 states of America, and of how the Vietnam War began before he told of his family's story.

"We come from a line of magicians dating far back to the line of Guan Gong, a famous Han Dynasty general of China. After his remaining bloodlines were presumed 'dead' by the Wu, our ancestors secretly escaped to Vietnam and began a new life, using the Vietnamese name equivalent to our previous chinese surname: Quang. So we have lived for many a century, unknown and secret.

But then the Vietnam War struck. I myself served as a soldier in the Viet Nam Cong Hoa army against the cruel Communists and had to leave my wife at home shortly after we married, pregnant with twin babies...The war for us Cong Hoa seemed to take a better turn when we got help from America, but that proved quite useless when President Nixon withdrew the American army from the country. Because of the Americans' withdrawal, things fell apart; mostly due to cowards; and whoever could was suggested to leave the country as refugees. The soldiers were dismissed or freed from prison to rejoin there families, but tradgedy struck mine when my wife died, so I took the boat to the US with my parents and eleven-year-old children.

With us we carried the key to Sanctuary, a haven for endagered and/or extinct animals, and so-called mythological beasts and humanoids. We had it with us back in Vietnam, and we still have it now." The old man waved his hand at the window, which looked over what looked like a backyard. When his hand passed over the glass, the typical green-lawn and swing sets scenery changed to that of a different world that couldn't have possibly fit into the neighborhood, even if it increased ten times its size. "We offer refuge to those who cannot keep up with humanity's many 'improvements'. They prove more harmful than helpful and are always getting in the way."

Drizzt walked over to the window, not believing what he saw. Closest to the house were rings of strange but formal buildings, and beyond those was land that stretched far beyond the horizon, ending at a range of snowy mountains piercing the sky.

"Anyways...my children, Nhat Binh (ny-UCK bin) and Phuong Hoang (fuh-ung hw-AH-ng..._note: is also known as 'phoenix')_ grew up here with better education than I'd less likely admit," Long Ha continued. "They became adults much too fast for me, and...well, got married. You can see the results of their marriages sitting before you." His kind brown eyes beamed upon his grandchildren proudly.

"Fine results," Drizzt complimented, telling the truth more than trying to get on the old magician's good side.

"Drake is adopted, though," Valkyrie said. "He was found on our doorstep just last year. But we still consider him family."

"Nhat Binh was Ahnnie and Huynh's father," the old man explained, "and Phuong Hoang was Valkyrie and Kirin's mother. She married a Chinese man, and as is our family's customs, even the husband must take on our name. The actual tradition though is that girls must take name of the family they are married into."

"More often in Menzoberranzan, it is the male who is added to the family rather than the female," Drizzt said. "So I do not think it strange in the least that your customs changed tradition."

Long Ha cracked a smile. "Very forthcoming. From what viewpoint do you say that?"

"Neutral."

"Ah, yes. Being polite, aren't you?"

Drizzt nodded slightly, wondering where this old man was going with his questions. But presently, the drow and a question for him. "You spoke of your children as though they are no longer your grandchildren's parents. Have they angered you somehow?"

The old man's features grew very sad as he said, "No, they have not angered me in any way. But perhaps they have angered fate, who has wrenched them cruelly away from life."

A funeral hush washed over the room, and Drizzt could see faces that were once cheery quickly blow away into frowns and hurt expressions.

"Huynh and Valkyrie were both somewhat old enough to remember. But Ahnnie and Kirin were not."

"Our father died first," Ahnnie supplied. "He and mother together, actually. I was just a baby when it happened, and Huynh was three. They were killed by mountain giants."

"Don't even think of asking Valkyrie or Kirin about their mother," Huynh warned the dark elf. "Or of forcing the truth out of them. It's something they would rather hide."

"I will do no such thing," Drizzt promised.

"Well." Long Ha shifted to a more comfortable position in his wheelchair, tapping his cane three times to get the great-grandparents' attentions. "Have we decided, Mother, Father?"

"The dark that is light!" Great-grandmother said in Vietnamese. "Also shines in the night."

"Glo-sticks," Great-grandfather commented in sloppy English.

"He sees what is right," the wizened old woman continued. "And for good does he fight."

"Is he a kite?" Great-grandfather asked. "I love kites."

Drizzt couldn't understand, and this time Long Ha translated for him. "If that is so," the drow said, "what is it you want to do with me?" Would they put him in Sanctuary, in a one-week trial, like the svirfneblins did? Or would they want to examine him further?

"I think," Long Ha said, "I'll have you as my servant."

* * *

Took me so long to finish this. More happens next chapter...thanks for reading and please review!


	5. Lillyn

I am back! And during my weekend break I finished up the Crystal Shard. I read fast. **Now I'm on Streams of Silver.**

Has anyone noticed that Drizzt gets a little more greedy in the fourth book? (**Referencing to:** The time he and Wulfgar raided the verbeeg lair and all Drizzt could think of was the food. And when they defeated Ingloakastimizilian (I actually remembered the name!), AKA: Icingdeath, Drizzt took some baubles and a super-awesome ice sword.)

Last night I did some research, and...**Drizzt is only _5'4'' tall! _That's only two and a half inches taller than me!** I suppose it's reasonable because the females in Menzoberranzan are only around four feet, but still...Is this even true?

* * *

Everyone in the room grew quiet. A drow as a servant? And a noble, at that. As if!

"WHAT?" Huynh cried. "Grandpa, are you serious?"

Even Ahnnie, who had been rooting for the drow all this time, grew uneasy. "Grandpa, that doesn't sound like such a good idea..."

"I agree," Valkyrie put in. "Whatever test this may be, I think it's going too far."

Long Ha's smile did not waver, despite his grandchildren's protests. "It will only be for a week, I assure you all. That is enough time for him to kill me anyways."

"That's more than enough time! He'll only need a minute to do it, maybe even less!" Huynh protested.

"Exactly," Long Ha said.

Now the grandchildren were seeing where their grandsire was going with this. Drizzt had passed the door-bashing test without getting into a fit of rage, but how would he do reduced to servitude to an old human man?

Drizzt pondered that, and seeing how similar (yet different) it was to the one-week trial in Blingdenstone, simply gave a shrug at the idea, even though his feelings inside was a brew of inner turmoil. He had served before, cleaning statues of Lolth during his childhood, but he never did any duties that slaves or servants would do. He was a noble of the ninth house of Menzoberranzan, expected to become a great soldier for House Do'Urden, not a slave to anyone's needs. At least, he was. But now...

"You agree?" Eld asked the black elf incredulously.

"I say he's a rather sneaky drow," Aubaine said, blowing Drizzt's white hair about his face. "Sir, can you really trust him?"

"He will not be touching my Draky," Fuyumi said frostily and hugged Drake defensively. The baby had no certain response to it other than drooling and blowing bubbles.

Leoht, at Kirin's side, stirred uneasily. He could talk in the human tongue, but being a variety of Lung Dragon he could only speak Chinese. And so he voiced out his concern in excellent Mandarin dialect. Valkyrie alone knew enough Chinese to go by, and translated for her grandfather.

"I do not trust him either. Let us roast him!"

Long Ha grimaced at the thought of burning the drow. "Calm down, all of you! You have heard my mother's words. What she says cannot be a lie. And since it is not a lie, then I'd gladly declare this: my servant shall also be my parents' and grandchildrens' servant."

"I like grapes," Great-grandmother added.

But everyone ignored her. The grandchildren looked amongst themselves, curious yet cautious. Drizzt was also to be shared among them...was this a smart move? And the guardians began thinking of wild scenarios in which their wards were cut down by swift drow prowess. How could Long Ha declare such a thing?

"I do not mind," Drizzt offered to the confused children.

"But..." Ahnnie looked helplessly at him. "But...I've always objected slavery!"

"It's a history class thing," Valkyrie explained vaguely to the drow.

"I do not agree with enslaving others, either," Drizzt said, only able to guess at what Valkyrie meant. "But if this can prove my sincerity...then please, go ahead."

Ahnnie looked down at her hands sadly, then up to Drizzt again. She had qualms about her grandfather doing this only because she worried for his safety...she still did, but now, it was more of a matter of the drow's feelings. She could not help but sigh and bear it.

Val sighed. "I don't like it either. But if it's what grandfather says, then I'd happily comply." Her face told everyone otherwise, though.

Only Huynh seemed excited about Drizzt being their servant. "I have the perfect jobs in mind for him," he said cryptically. "That also includes staying away from my little sister, drow."

Drizzt merely grunted his response, and kept his lavender eyes level with the human boy's brown ones. Both matched in strength, and neither looked away; but unlike Huynh, Drizzt's solemn orbs did not take this eye contact as a challenge of wills, but saw it instead as a chance to further examine the other's reaction.

Kirin's head was cocked to one side, and having already had the words translated, said, "What's gonna happen to him after the week ends?"

The young girl and her guardian shared the ability to understand and speak to each other telepathically, so after Leoht heard her question, he hissed to her, "We'll eat him!"

"No!" The little girl shrieked out loud in horror.

Everyone present did not hear anything of the telepathic conversation, so several eyebrows went up in question. Drizzt, concerned, turned his gaze over to the little girl, who stared back in sympathetic fear.

"Leoht wanted to eat Drizzt," Kirin explained to her grandfather.

Long Ha translated this for Drizzt, who could not blame the dragon, but was apalled by the fact that the guardian wanted to devour him. The look in the Lung's eyes denoted anger more than hunger though, so the drow concluded that Leoht's desire was feuled by something other than physical want. Drow elves probably didn't taste very good anyway.

The drow sighed and paced away from the window back to the center of the room. He looked at everyone, letting his glance pass by each person and statue, and finally rounded upon Long Ha.

"What do you want me to do, Master?" Drizzt said.

Long Ha's eyes widened, only for a few seconds, then relaxed again and looked squarely upon the dark elf. "I don't think you can work for us if you don't know anything of us."

"I know your names," the drow offered.

"That is nothing!" Long Ha insisted. "Children. Tell him about yourselves. To better serve you he must better know you."

Ahnnie, Kirin, and Val looked at each other, while Huynh kept his contemptuous glare upon the drow.

"What should we say?" Ahnnie asked after a while, voicing each of the girls' questions.

"Tell him your full name, of your interests and disinterests, and of your magic, shield type, and Second Ability," Long Ha supplied.

"Oldest first!" Huynh claimed.

"You just want to torture Drizzt," Ahnnie said.

"Of course I do. They're a torturous people. So I'm only giving him his due."

"That's so mean!" Ahnnie went up onto her knees, facing her brother with a dangerous tone. "You never even got to know him!"

"You only object to slavery," Huynh said, trying to sneak a hole into his sister's reasoning. "But you never got to know him either. And you call one conversation and testing him with his summons statuette 'knowing him'? Please."

"But-"

"No buts about it. I was right!"

Crestfallen, Ahnnie sank back in her seat. Eld patted her on the shoulder, but it was more to comfort her than to agree with her. The girl did not give up, however, and shot back, "Well, what about Grandpa's test on him? He could've gotten hurt busting through those doors, and attacked us, but he didn't do anything! His first question was about Kiri and Draky's safety!"

"He wants to get on our good side," Huynh reasoned.

"But..." Ahnnie looked from Drizzt and Huynh, but paused, as if realizing something, then requested, "Grandpa, let me go up to the drow!"

"Go ahead," Long Ha said, but only after he chanted a special barrier around her.

The girl got as close to the dark elf as the barrier would allow her. Ahmereld, unbeknownst to her, stood up after her and stood defensively at her side. She examined at Drizzt's face with urgent fervor, and finally, found the one thing that struck her as worth recognizing. "Your eyes," she said to the drow. "They're not red."

"Well, I know of that," Drizzt said, feeling a bit awkward having her so close.

"Grandpa, his eyes are-"

"Yes, purple," Long Ha nodded.

The girl turned to look at her grandfather incredulously. "How can you see that? I thought you were nearsighted."

"Not so that magic can't help me!" He exclaimed with a bout of laughter. "I was surprised you hadn't noticed sooner, being that your sight is much keener than mine."

Ahnnie blushed, but had no time for that and turned to Huynh. "There is definitely something different about him," she told her brother. "He's overly polite and his eyes aren't red!"

"Even evil people can have purple eyes," Huynh said, becoming more prideful the more his sister slipped in her argument.

"But eyes are the windows to the soul."

"The _eyes, _not the eye color."

Brightening with anger, Ahnnie had no choice but to sit back down with Eld at her side when her grandfather de-activated the barrier. The imp laid a comforting hand on her shoulder again, and this time whispered in her ear, "Let Huynh go ahead and introduce himself to the drow. There's no point in proving the dark elf's innocence, even if your great-grandmother acknowledges him as a good person."

"Fine," the girl mumbled under her breath.

"Loudmouth," her brother mouthed to her, much to her chagrin, and proceeded to follow his grandfather's structure of introduction. "I am Quang Nhat Huynh (_w-AH-ng ny-UCK hwin_), son of Quang Nhat Binh and Luu Mong Hoa (_luh-oo moh-m hwa_). I won't give you any advantage over what I like, nor what I dislike. But I will tell you, I am a magician more attuned to the powers of the ocean than anything else, and being a drow I believe you don't know anything about it."

Drizzt had to nod. The word Huynh used for 'ocean' was in Island Elven, so it was foreign to the drow.

"My shields," Huynh continued, "are made up of larimar. And my Second Ability is Xiaolin kungfu, or more simplified as Strength. Combined with my magic, I can use it to crush anything. Or anyone."

"Show-off," Ahnnie muttered.

"Why don't you go next, then?" Huynh prodded.

"No. I'll let Val go ahead."

Their bespectacled cousin fidgeted nervously. She was never comfortable talking about her magic, and preferred to keep it a secret.

But under the pressure of her surrounding family, Valkyrie said softly, "I am Valkyrie Guan, daughter of Luo Yuan and Quang Phuong Hoang. I...I like music...and I really hate any loud disturbances. My abilities deal with the occult, hence the glasses...they are enchanted to keep me from seeing what I don't want to see. I forbid anyone to ever touch them or take them off," she added threateningly, more to non-existent enemies than to anyone present. "I use phantom quartz for my shields. My Second Ability is Calm. More known as the ability to instill illusions with peaceful rhythm."

"And I'm Kirin Guan," Kirin said with her words translated for Drizzt by her older sister. "I'm Val's little sis, so I share her parents, and I really like cookies and hate anything sour." The little girl thought of what to say next, and said, "Oh, and I can control plants and talk to animals...weird thing, right? My shield type is moss agate, and my Second Ability is, uh, Qigong. It's a Chinese thing that shoots energy, mostly to break people's joints."

"The specific meaning is Chi," Valkyrie explained to Drizzt. "Or Energy."

The drow nodded.

When Ahnnie did not start immediately, Huynh cleared his throat. "O sister of mine," he said sarcastically. "Art thou having stage fright?"

"Hey!" she snapped. "Fine, fine, I'll say it." She turned to Drizzt and caught his scrutinizing and calculating purple stare. "I'm Quang Phuong Anh, little sister of Huynh and sharer of his parents. I like adventure and hate annoying older brothers." This earned her a glare from Huynh. "I use elemental magic, but can only do fire and wind. My shield type is beryl, and my Second Ability is the way of the shinobi, or Stealth."

"Drake is still a baby," Long Ha explained when it got to the youngest member, "so we cannot yet discern his magic, shield type or Second Ability."

"Hold on a moment," Drizzt said, extending out a hand. "I am a bit confused about all this. Shield type? Second Ability? What are those?"

"Ah, I've forgotten." Long Ha cleared his throat for yet another explanation. "This is a system of magic developed after our patron ancestor passed away. It has been researched and tested to its fine point now, and if I could let them demonstrate, you would be able to see. But to make a long story short, it is a magic developed for quick combat and is easier to master; well, easier because I experimented further and added in the Shield Type.

"I took the idea from the stones of the earth," Long Ha continued. "Boosted with magic, their level of hardness can be further strengthened, and with a deep meditative understanding one can discern one's shield type. Rocks also reform after time, smoothing over in places once jagged, something I call 'healing'. This also boosts the regenerative powers within a magician when wounded, a must-have for fighter mages. So I trained my young grandchildren until they found their Type, surprisingly at the age of five, proving my methods to be successful!

"Also, I found that it made their flexibility for their innate magic easier. I still haven't found out why, or how that happened, but I am still pondering that and will hopefully come to a conclusion within my lifetime.

Now, the Second Ability is one of many...Strength, Calm, Energy, Stealth...those are but among a few. Again, it is a reference created by our ancestors, deeply researched and studied."

Drizzt was surprised. Drow magic was obviously made for combat too, but it only included Lolth and common spells, such as lightning bolts and acid balls, or polymorphing and etc. The Quangs were much different.

"I myself control the weather," Long Ha said. "Not literally! I can only take essences from storms and blizzards and blast them at an opponent, not an area."

"Thank you for your explanations," Drizzt said, bowing slightly. "Now, what can I do for you, Master?"

"Don't call me 'Master'. It is most unnerving. Call me by name."

Drizzt raised an eyebrow. "All right. What is your name?"

"Quang Long Ha. But you can call me Long Ha."

"Then, Long Ha, what can I do for you?"

The old man considered it for a while. "Mm, maybe later. For now, I have to concentrate on getting my grandchildren to school."

Drizzt was horrified at the mention of the word 'school'. His schooldays had been filled with hateful lectures, lessons on evil, and the like. The biggest and most important moral school had ever taught him was to kill, or be killed. "Is it necessary?"

Everyone in the room, besides the senile great-grandparents, were stunned at the drow's question.

"The law requires it," Long Ha said after a shocked silence.

_Just like in Menzoberranzan, _Drizzt thought grimly.

"Don't worry," Val said. "It's nothing like Melee-Magthere or Sorcere. We learn nothing hateful or violent in school...just math, history, science, and sometimes even Spanish."

Despite the reassuring explanation, Drizzt did not feel that he could breath any easier about it. He even ignored the strange reference to espanol. "Then...am I to escort you all?"

"Of course not," Huynh cut in. "You don't know how to drive. I'll be doing it."

Namiq the winter wolf, sitting beside the boy, looked at him curiously for a long while. Like Leoht, she and Huynh could communicate telepathically. And her mind's question was: "Are you sure you can drive with all that anger inside you?"

"O-of course I can," the boy sputtered out loud in English.

"Look like an idiot?" Ahnnie said, pretending to finish his sentence.

"Shut up."

"You shut up."

"Look, pipsqueak, who's the oldest of us all?"

"Great-grandpa, duh."

"No, I mean..." Huynh tried to hide his embarrassment. "Of us grandkids?"

"Is this a trick question?"

"Stop answering my questions with questions!"

"I only did it once!" Ahnnie protested.

"Girls, girls!" Valkyrie interrupted. "You're both pretty! Now stop arguing, and lets get our butts on to school. On Grandpa's signal, of course." She looked pointedly at Long Ha.

"Yes, yes, go on." Their grandfather dismissed them with a wave of his hand. When they left, his eyes wandered over to their guardians. "Aubaine."

"Yes?" came the airy reply.

"Both you and Ahmereld head to the weapons room and take out the drow scimitars."

The imp and windsoul looked at each other.

"Very well," Eld said at length. "But what then?"

"Display them on the living room wall, over the television set."

Namiq's tail wagged frantically at the old man's suggestion. "You're pratically giving the drow a chance to stab-and-run!" she cried, much to the surprise of Drizzt, who was more fascinated that she could talk than feel hurt that she had accused him.

Leoht shook his head vigorously.

"This is not for you two to question," Long Ha said. "If Aubaine and Ahmereld wish to judge themselves incompetent before me now by defying my orders, then they can do so!"

The two guardians looked hurt and, after sending covert glances in the direction of their wards' voices, nodded once and headed out the room.

Namiq padded softly over to Drizzt and tugged at his pants leg. "Come," she said. "After a meeting has ended, we are needed to exit if nothing else is required. No dilly-dallying!"

Drizzt, of course, could not understand the winter wolf but followed after her incessant tugging.

Fuyumi rose from her seat, leaving behind several snowflakes that fell off her kimono, and turned her icy blue eyes on the drow. "Drake is off-limits to you!" she warned the drow in his language. "Remember that! Should I see you entering the baby's room, I shall freeze you to death!"

As if he needed another warning.

* * *

"Lunchbox?"

"Check."

"Homework?"

"Check."

A small fairy whirred around Ahnnie's head, leaving a trail of orange-red fairy dust in her wake. "Did you tell anyone?"

"No one else but you, me, and Eld!"

The fairy's big, golden eyes rolled in mock exasperation. "Oh, that grumble-guts too? I might as well blindly dive into a shallow well."

"Lillyn!" Ahnnie scolded playfully, for the fairy's remark was just a joke. The drow scimitars had already been put up like trophies above the TV, criss-crossed, and held up by none other than magic; and in the midst of the work the human girl managed to sneak her winged friend into the house.

"It's already bad enough you missed the bus!" Lillyn continued. "I was waiting outside for, like, forever!"

"Ok, ok, sorry. Eld and I found a drow yesterday; can you believe it? So we had a long meeting upstairs." Ahnnie's eyes darted secretly to the living room. They were currently standing in Drizzt's empty guest bedroom. "Hurry, we haven't much time!"

Lillyn gave a huff and flew to the girl's black-haired head. She lay down on the side and clung to a lock of hair, then rested her vibrant butterfly wings out flat. "School had better be interesting today, or you won't be able to make it up with me!"

"Yes, yes," Ahnnie said, and prepared to chant the spell that would make Lillyn look like a hair ornament to other eyes other than her own. But just when she was getting started...

...Drizzt came in!

"Eeeyaaah!" Lillyn screamed when she saw the sudden intruder. She lost it and frantically flew behind Ahnnie's head. "Drow! Monster! Enemy!"

"Wha-wait..." Ahnnie tried meeting the fairy's eyes, but the three-inch tall creature kept darting behind her head. Giving up, Ahnnie sighed and decided to face Drizzt. "Hello."

"Greetings," Drizzt said, confused by what he saw. His orders for now (from Namiq and Fuyumi, mostly) were to relax as best as he could in his room until he was needed. He hadn't expected Ahnnie to be here, especially without Eld. "What are you hiding?"

"Oh, Lillyn?" Ahnnie turned around to reveal the fairy, but Lillyn kept darting away. "She's my fairy friend! I always sneak her to school with me. Now, let me...gah...Oh c'mon, Lil! He's the drow we found, and he's nice!"

"Dark magician!" the fairy screamed.

"Lil!" Ahnnie spun madly and finally caught her. "Calm down! He's a nice guy!"

The fairy squirmed in the girl's grip, but tired after a few minutes. Ahnnie then opened her palms so that Lillyn could sit on them. "There," Ahnnie coaxed. "Let Drizzt Do'Urden have a look at you. And be nice."

The drow leaned in close, but not too close, and could not help but admire what he saw. Lillyn was so tiny and delicate-looking. Looking at her, Drizzt felt that if he held her in his calloused hands, he might accidentally crush her. Her features were slightly pointed and elfish, emphasizing the fact. Her long, dark hair covered her shoulders and ran down along her bright red dress, and her big gold eyes scrutinized the drow despite her exhaustion.

"Did you know that fairies are born by a baby's first laugh?" Ahnnie asked suddenly.

Drizzt looked up at her. "No, I did not."

"Well, Lillyn is from my first laugh," Ahnnie declared proudly.

The drow arched an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

The continuous smile and silence that the human girl gave him convinced him that she was just making that assumption.

"I wonder what yours looks like," Ahnnie said after a while.

Drizzt shrugged. "I do not know if such a beautiful creature could be born from the first laugh of one of a vile race such as mine."

"Sure they can!" Ahnnie protested. "Babies are always innocent when they're still babies, and that has nothing to do with what race they are! I bet yours is a very handsome fairy-boy, or a gorgeous fairy-girl, with beautiful platinum-silver hair."

Drizzt tried to fight back a chuckle. "Does that mean my siblings' fairies are also beautiful?"

"Of course."

And what of Matron Malice's, he wanted to ask, but left it as something for him to answer. "That is an interesting thought," he decided to say. "I would like to meet my fairy one day. If he or she is not so predjudiced against me."

"Most of them live in Neverland," Ahnnie said. "But a good many of them came to Sanctuary, so perhaps we can search for him or her when you're not a servant anymore."

"Can I help?" Lillyn asked excitedly. She always loved going to meet other fairies, and the happiness it gave her outweighed any fear that she had for the drow.

"Sure!" Ahnnie exclaimed.

Drizzt nodded. "Any help would be appreciated." He brought up a hand to wipe his stinging eyes. "But please, I need some rest now...preferably with my eyes closed..."

Ahnnie and Lillyn giggled (though the fairy's was half-hearted) and exited the room to leave the drow to his own privacy. Ahnnie quickly did the spell on Lillyn, who now perched on the girl's head, and went out to join her brother and cousins outside the house.

"What took you so long?" Huynh asked impatiently.

Ahnnie walked out, her backpack magically summoned from the house, and bumped into an invisible form. "Sorry Eld, is that you?"

Ahmereld lifted the cowl of his invisibility cloak, making visible his face, and gave her a nod. Then he put it back down. This was how the other guardians went about with their wards in the world outside Sanctuary, and it often drew confused glances from people they accidentally bumped into.

"Let's hurry before Mr. McGristle sees us," Kirin urged. "I don't want him yelling at us again!"

Mr. McGristle, or Roddy McGristle, was a retired FBI agent living next door from the Quang's. He once, three years ago, snuck into their house's backyard through the fence's gate; also known as the Gate to Sanctuary; and his experience there was not pretty. He didn't stay still long enough for them to put a memory spell on him, and it became a big impact on his mind over time, so it was impossible for the magicians to do anything about it. Luckily for them all his reports to the police about their "goddamn zoo of a backyard" went unbelieved, though it did invite several cops over to the house on occasion.

"Right," Val agreed, and opened the door to Huynh's brand new 2011 Volkswagen GTI. Once everyone was inside the spacious car (spacious, due to magic), Huynh drove them all off to school.


	6. The Inglesi Test

I made Roddy McGristle a retired FBI agent because,

**1. **There are no more bounty hunters in our day and age (are there?).

**2.** An FBI agent is the closest thing to a bounty hunter (sort of, in my opinion). They catch worse criminals than the police do.

**3. **Roddy's retired, because I don't know anything about the FBI to write about the job, and because that way he's not always working and thus the Quangs or Drizzt can toss him around like an old shoe on a daily basis :).

_**Also...Guenny's not mentioned much in the Icewind Dale Trilogy! EGADS! **_She became my favorite panther as of the Dark Elf Trilogy. She needs more book-time! And no, I did not just realize it. I just haven't talked of it here yet.

Just in case you get confused about Fuyumi...she is a yuki-onna, which in Japanese means snow woman, and is a type of yokai (japanese mythological monster).

***The movie mentioned in this chapter is Hocus Pocus, made in 1993. The witch mentioned in the movie is Sarah, one of the Sanderson Sisters.**

* * *

When Drizzt woke up for the second time that day, he found the house quiet without the Quang children around. Well, Drake was still in the house, but the baby was currently asleep.

Suddenly, for the first time in a long time, the black elf found something he had not expected.

Fuyumi, standing at the end of the bed, dumped a small pile of snow on his face and said, "Wake up, drow!"

_How did she get in here without my knowing? _Drizzt thought, but did not have time to think further when he sputtered the cold, powdery stuff out of his mouth and quickly sat up. His hunter side was tempted to wring the yuki-onna's neck, or to rush out, grab the scimitars and cut her down, but the dark elf resisted against it, making it look like he was straining his arms hugging nothing. When he noticed the yokai's confused look, he did his best to smile through teary eyes and quickly stood up.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"Wipe that silly grin off your face," Fuyumi scolded, lashing out with a small tendril of ice. Drizzt caught the sting and winced. "The children are coming home right now, and Long Ha has ordered you to stand in the living room and ingest a language pill, which Ahnnie will give to you. Now get moving."

The drow was confused by all this (especially the language pill part) but listened to the icy woman anyways.

By the moment he reached the center of the living room, the front door opened and Kirin charged in. At her side, Leoht threw off his invisiblity cloak and left it crumpled on the floor.

"Heehee! Can't catch me!" the little girl taunted her guardian.

Leoht leapt and spun and twisted through the air so gracefully that Drizzt's eyes began widening at the spectacle. When the Lung finished his mid-air dance, he gently touched the tip of his ward's head with his muzzle and landed on the couch.

"I caught you!" the dragon exclaimed from his mind.

"No fair, you flew," Kirin mentally protested.

"You could've levitated. But you did not! So I win!"

"Ahem." Fuyumi's call stopped them in their tracks. Turning to Drizzt, she said, "Kirin's bus delivers her home first before any of her siblings. Elementary students usually come home earlier here. But today we will be expecting Huynh to use his car, so be prepared."

_For him to 'torture' me? _Drizzt wondered with little amusement.

"Hello, Drizzit," Kirin greeted the drow.

Leoht shot the girl a warning look, but she ignored it.

Drizzt, guessing that the girl gave him a greeting, nodded to her.

"What's he doing here?" the girl asked Fuyumi. The yuki-onna explained in English, and then Kirin said, "Ahnnie brought Lillyn to school today again, so she must have those language pills. It's so funny; she thinks no one knows about her with Lillyn in school, but I do! It's kind of obvious with the butterfly 'accessory' in her hair."

Fuyumi nodded knowingly. "That cousin of yours has trained all her life with the ninjas for her Second Ability, and yet she cannot even properly conceal a fairy."

"The fact that Grandpa ordered her to give the pill means he knows too," Kirin added. "I wonder, who else knows?"

"Her guardian, of course."

"Ahmereld is a pushover. He'll let her have or do anything as long as she throws in some tears."

The yuki-onna frowned. "I don't think she's ever used crying to have her way..."

"I meant that metamorphically," Kirin said.

"You mean, 'metaphorically."

"Yeah...what you said."

The snow woman laughed, and as she did so, a shower of snowflakes fell from the ceiling.

"Watch it," said Kirin, hugging herself with her arms. "It's springtime, and I'm wearing short sleeves!"

Though the sleeves of Drizzt's tunic were long, he could not help but shiver in the suddenly cold atmosphere.

"All right, I apologize," said Fuyumi. She inhaled sharply and the snowflakes disappeared into her kimono.

"What kind of pill is she supposed to give him anyway?" Kirin continued asking.

"English."

"Oh. Typical. But, he can't always take those things..."

"No worries. This is just a test; he should only be required to use it occasionally." Suddenly, Fuyumi paused as if someone hit her with a snowball, then said,"I must attend to Draky soon. I feel him beginning to awaken. Also, the ground trembles with the Volkswagen's tires. Huynh is coming; you'd better open the door for him."

"Now, how do you know these things?"

"Yokai are not essentially human. Now take care, and make sure you do not touch the drow." Her voice became serious. "He has killer instincts!" Then she sauntered off to the baby's room, leaving behind a trail of ice which quickly dissipated into water.

"I'm not mopping that up," Kirin remarked softly.

* * *

Though Fuyumi was somehow able to sense Huynh's arrival, it took about forty-five minutes for him to actually arrive. During that time, Kirin grew curious about Drizzt's newest order, so she made herself comfortable on the couch, with Leoht right next to her. She was just so curious about it that she even ignored the fact that Leoht began playing with her left pigtail. That's when she remembered she had a history project to finish, but...

_I'll save homework for later, _she reasoned, and patiently waited for her cousins and sister to come home.

Meanwhile, Drizzt could not help but pace back and forth, deep in thought. What were they going to do to him now? What were language pills? Were there any side effects he should worry about? And if there were...would they ever wear off?

His worries presented themself as a group of teenagers, two of them (Huynh and Ahnnie) with awfully sniffly noses.

"Sprig is in de air," (Spring is in the air) Ahnnie explained through a clogged nose. She conjured a tissue from a tissue box sitting on the coffee table and began to blow.

"I hate it so," Huynh muttered to himself as he tried not to rub his itching eyes, which were ailing as well.

"Wow. I guess I'll consider myself lucky," Val said teasingly.

"Me too!" Kirin jumped up. "I didn't get any allergies either!"

The two sisters high-fived, a sign Drizzt quickly registered to be a sign of alliance, especially with the secret smiling glances they threw at their unfortunate cousins.

Eld, Namiq, and Aubaine suddenly threw off their invisibility cloaks, revealing themselves so fast that the drow could hardly blink. He had not seen them; whether he sensed them or no he could hardly tell himself; and what they did truly surprised him.

Aubaine, catching his stare, sneered and said, "We follow our wards to school too, you know. So that no hateful lectures can influence them."

Drizzt tried not to show how bothered he was by the last comment.

"Enough," Namiq scolded the windsoul, who ruffled the winter wolf's fur with her windy huff. "Let us make sure that they don't grow lazy and forget their homework. Bothering the drow is the last thing I'd want to do right now." She padded off and tugged on Huynh's pantleg, urging him to follow her up to his room. "You should start on that science report as soon as you can," she reminded him.

"I know, I know," Huynh said, and followed his guardian up the stairs. "But what will I write about?"

Their conversation was blocked off when the door to the teenage boy's room closed, cutting off any communication from the outside.

Just when Ahnnie was about to do the same (more to unenchant Lillyn and send her back to Sanctuary), Kirin stopped her and Eld by jumping on Eld.

"Why me?" Eld asked with an exasperated smile.

"Cousin Ahnnie~!" Kirin said in a singsong voice. "Grandpa needs you~! To give a language pill~! To Drizzit~!"

"Let me call Lillyn in first," Ahnnie lied, still heading towards the stairs. "Plus I need to get this hairclip off me." She pointed to the seemingly inanimate scarlet butterfly ornament in her ebon hair.

"Don't lie," Kirin said. "That thing's Lillyn, I can tell! Grandpa knew it too. So hurry it up and fork over that pill."

"Wh-What are you talking about?" Ahnnie asked shakily, her resolve already broken.

Valkyrie sighed and drew out a small pouch, tugging on the sides to loosen the drawstrings. The pouch was labeled: Kotodama Powder. Taking a handful of the powder, the girl threw it at her cousin. "Come here," she commanded.

Under the Kotodama powder's spell, Ahnnie found her legs moving on their own. "Hey!" she protested, and Eld couldn't help but chuckle.

Drizzt immediately stepped forward, aware that the girl was not moving of her own volition. "What are you doing to her?" he demanded.

"Oh, it's nothing," Ahnnie quickly said when she saw the fire in the drow's eyes. She did not want her cousins to see it. "I just have to confess something, that's all!" More to reassure the drow of her safety than to surrender, the teenager quickly chanted the counterspell and lifted the illusion off of Lillyn. The fairy was then revealed, and not too happy about it. "Lillyn, give me a language pill," Ahnnie ordered.

"Which language?" the fairy asked grumpily.

"Which one?" Ahnnie asked Kirin.

"English."

"English," Ahnnie echoed to Lillyn.

Lillyn reached into a pouch hung from a belt around her waist and produced a small, white tablet the size of her hands imprinted on one side with the word 'English'. To a human, they were the same size of any normal medicine pill and could fit easily into their palms. But to fairies, they had to be held by two hands.

Ahnnie took the pill and handed it to Drizzt. To her relief, the dark elf's eyes cooled off their anger. "Here. Swallow it. I wouldn't recommend washing it down with water; that erases the effects."

Drizzt took the small pill in his fingers and inspected it awhile. "What does it do?"

"Makes you speak whatever language it makes you speak."

"And what language would this be?"

"English; a language that's growing very popular in our world! Now hurry and swallow it."

The drow was still hesitant, however. "If I can speak English just by taking this medicine..."

"You won't be able to understand anything else for two hours," Ahnnie finished for him, though that was not what Drizzt had meant to say. "It'll be just English for that period of time. But it's not recommended to be used on a daily basis."

Drizzt nodded slowly. Tentatively, he raised the pill up to his mouth, popped it in, and swallowed it. The drow closed his eyes tight, expecting some sort of tingling sensation or the like. But nothing really happened, not even a wave of nausea. When he opened his eyes, he seemed sorely disappointed.

"Turn on the TV," Ahnnie urged Kirin through a whisper.

The little girl rushed over to the coffee table, grabbed the remote, and pressed the "POWER" button. Almost immediately the TV flashed on, showing a dark, cloudy sky with a blonde-haired woman floating in the midst of it. She wore a burgundy-red medieval dress and matching cloak, showing her to be witch of some sort.

Drizzt was shocked to see someone inside the big black box, and even more shocked to hear her sing:

"_Come little children,_

_I'll take thee away_

_Into a land of enchantment_..."

The drow, with the help of the pill, could understand the words she sang, and seeing that Kirin was a little child he hurriedly rushed over and put his hands to her ears. "Do not listen to her!" Drizzt commanded now in English. "She is trying to lure you away. Do not give in to the spell!"

Kirin gave a wink to Ahnnie and Val, then pretended to make her expression go blank. In a mechanic tone she said, "I will come with thee...into the land...of enchantment..." She slowly began walking away, letting the drow's hands slip off her ears helplessly.

"Do something!" Drizzt begged Ahnnie.

"I can't," the girl honestly replied.

"Why not?" The drow asked threateningly.

"Because she's just pretending."

"What..." Drizzt turned and found Kirin rolling on the floor, laughing hysterically at him. The relief he felt was overwhelming, and he too had to smile at it. "Thank goodness..." Then he turned back to Ahnnie. "But you ought to be careful. That witch was trying to lure little children!"

"You understood the song!" Ahnnie gasped in delight, trying to take the drow's attention away from the movie. "The English pill worked!"

"So it did," Drizzt said flatly.

Valkyrie grabbed the remote and shut the TV off. "That lady's not really a witch. She's just an actress on the screen." Then she went through a lengthy explanation of TV, movies, cable, DVDs, Live News, and etc.

"So it is a recorded form of scrying," Drizzt concluded.

"Uh...yeah," Ahnnie agreed.

"All with the help of lightning?"

"Electricity," Kirin corrected. "That's another word for it. Sounds much smaller than lightning."

"Electricity," Drizzt echoed, though he wondered if he would really remember it when the pill wore off.

"Well, now that we know it works on drow, we've gotta report to Grandpa," Ahnnie declared.

"Hold it," Valkyrie said, stopping her cousin. "We should explain to Drizzt why Grandpa's tested him with this." She turned to the drow. "Sometimes we get visitors, and sometimes you'll be there. So before anything happens, Ahnnie will give you a language pill until you learn the whole thing. Got it?"

Drizzt nodded.

"But we don't want to waste a good language pill," Ahnnie continued. "So Eld...do the honors."

Ahmereld went up behind the drow and circled his arms around the drow's waist. He preformed the Heimlich maneuver on Drizzt and the pill jumped out of his mouth, landing in Ahnnie's hand. She quickly used some wind to dry it off, then handed it back to a repulsed Lillyn.

"All right." Val released Ahnnie. "Now you can tell Grandpa."


	7. Long Ha's Confession

((Don't worry, I didn't post my reasons of Roddy being FBI because I was angry. I just wanted to clarify it, is all.))

I am on the** Halfling's Gem now, but still sticking to the beginning** because I'm afraid I'll finish it too fast and have to wait awhile untill I get to buy Legacy because, right now, I don't have enough to buy it :(.

This chapter I'm expanding a little (or a lot) more on Long Ha's character. Be prepared! There will also be a familiar face showing at the very end of the chapter...

* * *

For the rest of the day, Drizzt didn't do very much other than wiping down the dining table every time Drake made a mess, or just simply squeeze out and bring up some OJ for Long Ha. Sometimes he monitored the great-grandparents, whose room was devoid of any furniture other than their own beds.

"We leave it like that because they're senile," Ahnnie told him. "And senile magicians are not magicians you'd want to be near. Last time there was any proper furniture in there, it was either crashing out the window or broken around the room."

The house later emptied of noise when Huynh, Valkyrie, Ahnnie, and Kirin left for the backyard into Sanctuary to resume lessons that could not be taught in school. Most of it was to improve on their Second Ability, but a good chunk of it was also used to hone their fighting skills, as Valkyrie had explained to him.

That night, Drizzt ate dinner in his room, again; a sour, yet delicious, soup with some fish and more of that 'rice'. And when he finally laid his head down to sleep, he awoke again a few seconds later to find all five guardians staring right back at him.

"What are you all doing here?" he asked.

"We've been ordered to watch you for the first hour of your sleep," Aubaine explained windily. "So just close your eyes and go back to dreamland."

Drizzt closed his eyes, but found it very unnerving to have five different creatures staring at him while he slept. He could only find peace when the appointed hour passed and they left. Thus he spent his second night in this strange new world, known as the surface.

The next morning, just like it had been the previous morn, the drow was invited for breakfast (but this time, by Eld). Today's specialty was crepes; as was expected of Valkyrie, who, on her turn to make the food, would always choose to cook up something new or fancy. And as Drizzt began to notice, only the children (and Eld) sat around the table for breakfast. But unlike the night before, he dragged himself out of bed and ambled into the dining room to see if he was welcome.

"Good morning Drizzt," Ahnnie greeted, waving for him to sit next to her.

"Oh no, he sits near me," Huynh interjected.

"You'll abuse him," she protested.

"Then at least he won't abuse you!"

"But he doesn't abuse anybody!"

"Oh, will you two stop it?" Kirin pleaded. "Or are we going to miss the bus again?"

"I'd rather drive," Huynh groaned.

"I'd rather take the bus," Ahnnie retorted, "than have you drive me."

"Who said I'd take you?"

"Well...who said you needed to say that you wanted to drive? As if we don't know it!"

"I wouldn't talk if I were you, pipsqueak. You don't even have a license yet."

"But I have a learner's permit!"

"But you don't have a license-"

"_Enough!_" Aubaine screeched out her arrival, which sounded like the howl of a thousand speedy winds, and silenced further argument. "Finish up your breakfast so you don't get late for school! The bus is coming soon!"

Everyone, especially the two arguing siblings, obediently went on eating. Valkyrie, however, looked Aubaine in the eye inquiringly.

"Why are you here?" she asked. Indeed, though Aubaine was also a humanoid, she was a living form of wind, so there really was no definite shape to her, and thus she could not join at the table like a solid person. Windsouls ate the essence of the breeze, not food as we know it, which would just slip right through them.

"Long Ha has just ordered Drizzt to bring up some more orange juice," Aubaine said casually in drow. "If he is not so busy."

"I am not busy," Drizzt protested. He hadn't sat down to eat yet, but could still do something as small as deliver a glass of orange juice. "Besides, my appetite-"

"Are you sure?" Ahnnie asked him with concern.

"I am sure," he said with finality. Then he went to the kitchen, took a fresh orange, and like he usually did so far, sliced it up professionaly with a nearby kitchen knife (oh, how he missed his scimitars) and squeezed the fresh juice into a glass cup. His strength aided his fists in this job where many others would have used a machine to do the juicing. When he finished, he wiped his hands on a rag and went up the stairs to the old man's room, where it seemed he usually spent his days.

But when the drow reached the door to the old man's room, he heard something strange.

Crying.

With a raised eyebrow, Drizzt knocked softly on the door. "Long Ha? I have come up with the juice, just like you asked..."

The door swung open suddenly, opened by none other than magic. It revealed a neat room with a bed, desk, and altar bearing the golden deity with beaded hair and another with a very long beard and red complexion. Long Ha had not yet bothered to explain about them yet, and Drizzt decided that he might as well take his time if he wanted to.

But now was not the time to ask of strange gods. Now, as Drizzt could see before him, the old man was softly weeping and dripping tears onto a wooden-framed picture.

"Long Ha?" the drow asked curiously.

It was as though the grandfather had just noticed him enter. Long Ha quickly put the picture away, and wiped at his tears. "What have you come here for, Drizzt? I did not ask for anything."

Drizzt grew confused. "But the windy woman..."

"Aubaine?"

"...Aubaine...she told me you requested some juice."

Now the elderly man was confused. "If I really needed any, I wouldn't have told her to tell you."

"Then, why?"

Long Ha heaved a heavy sigh, and gave a shrug. "Perhaps she knew what I was up to in here, and wanted for you to see it."

"What were you up to?"

"Mourning." The grandfather wheeled his wheelchair to an angle where he would face his window instead of the dark elf. "Mourning for the past."

"If it is not convenient, you do not have to say anything," Drizzt offered. He, too, knew how it felt to mourn for past times. The only difference was, Drizzt willed himself not to cry.

"I have told my grandchildren about it," Long Ha said, "and my children before them. It is something I would want to hide, but...what would I gain in hiding it? Inner security? But then what of the future generations? What am I to tell them, if not a lie, if I respected my security more than theirs when they ask of what happened to their mother, or for the younger, their grandmother?"

_Something happened to his wife, _Drizzt conceded. What intrigued him most was that the old man actually...missed her. Back in Menzoberranzan, there was no love of that sort, and whatever lover Matron Malice ever had who died was just some lover of the past. She needed more than one mate to sustain her pleasures, and the best examples were Rizzen and Zaknafein. She definitely had no qualms when it came to sacrificing the both of them. To find her mourning over either of them would land her in the Guiness Book of World Records (**A/N: No, Drizzt did not just think that. I did**).

In other words, drow elves knew of no romantic love. Just the passion of the pleasure.

"I will just leave your juice here, then," Drizzt said, and laid the cup on the desk. He made to leave when Long Ha stopped him.

"Can I trust you, drow?"

Drizzt turned back. "With anything."

"Then...you remember what I told you of the Communists?"

"Every word."

"Well, I'll have to admit one thing." A small smile spread on the man's face, but Drizzt could not see it. "I used my magic more than once in those battles against the Viet cong. During those times, it seemed like we'd win. It seemed like, with magic, I could end a whole country's supression without any foreign help. The Americans wouldn't be needed to aid us in our fight. It injured my pride, you know, when I found out they'd be there; as if us Cong Hoa (Republican) were incompetent, or something.

But, I drew too much attention to myself." The smile disappeared. "The Communists took note of the battles that were won on our side, especially where I was stationed. They sent a spy into the camp and found out from there that I was a magician. While they couldn't force a search on my house or kidnap my children, who were trained too well against guns, there was only one non-magical person who they could use to blackmail me."

"Your wife," Drizzt said.

"Yes. She knew nothing of magic when I married her, and yet...and yet, she accepted it. But despite all her training in magic basics, she was still a vulnerable target. I was warned in time by none other than Kellindil; he is an elven friend of mine; but, when I reached home, it was too late...

They already had the point of a gun on my wife's head. They said that if I didn't defect to their side and use magic to help them, I would lose her."

The drow suspected that the human had declined the offer, thus enabling his wife's death. He voiced out his guess, but quickly found out that he was wrong.

"I did not decline their offer. But I did not accept." Long Ha looked at the picture sitting on the bedside table. "It was she who...who didn't want to be any obstacle in my path and, with the little magic she knew...she willed the goddamn Communist agent's finger against the trigger. And launched a bullet into her head."

Drizzt stood silent. He heard of guns the previous day from Valkyrie's explanations, and hoped to never come across one. This story only proved of the weapon's prowess and helpfullness, but also it's many uncharming qualities.

"That is why I mourn today, drow," Long Ha finished. "I regret not being able to do anything. I fear that I am truly incompetent..."

_You are not, _Drizzt thought. _If you were, you would not have been able to survive to raise your grandchildren. Perhaps your wife knew of it and willingly gave herself over. _But when Long Ha grew silent, the drow quietly left the room.

* * *

After school the next day (Drizzt's third day being a servant) Kirin sat alone in the living room with Leoht, Lillyn, a magical set of paint, and Guenhwyvar's statuette.

The little girl's Sanctuary lessons were delayed today, due to her grandfather's wishes for her to examine the enchanted panther. Because of her life-themed powers, the family thought it best that she be the one to call forth the summons-creature. But, there was only one problem...

...what was its name?

_I'll have to ask Drizzt, _Kirin thought. _But, I can't speak drow like the others..._ She looked up from where she was sitting, and lo and behold, Drizzt was being tutored by Fuyumi on how to use a vacuum. By the looks of it, the drow was proving to be a fast learner, but he kept getting the wires all tangled.

"No! You sucked up the wires again!" Fuyumi cried, reverting back to Japanese in her moment of frustration.

The drow kept his stoic look, but this time it was splashed with irritation.

_I hope he's not angry at Fuyumi, _Kirin thought hopefully.

"What the heck was that pacifier doing there?" the snow woman grumbled. "You blustering fool, you just sucked that up too!"

But the young girl, taking Drizzt's expression of annoyance to be with people other than himself, pressed her lips tight and stared back at Guenhwyvar in silent desperation.

"What's wrong?" Lillyn asked, flittering around Kirin's head.

"I don't know the panther's name," Kirin lamented.

"Who does it belong to?"

"Drizzt."

"How about I ask Drizzt for you?" Lillyn offered.

"No way!" Leoht roared, but to ears other than Kirin's, it sounded more like a roar than a statement. "If anything, I shall ask him!"

"You'll eat him," Kirin mumbled.

The small fairy, born with the same typical ADD or ADHD that such of her race carries, grew used to Drizzt after the few days he had been in the house. Ahnnie allowed her to view the drow during his times of quiet servitude, and what the fairy saw clearly showed her that the drow was not a vicious one.

"I will ask him!" Lillyn declared, and flew straight towards the yuki-onna and the dark elf. Her golden sparkles caught in Fuyumi's ice-blue eyes and nose, making her sneeze. When they landed on Drizzt, he floated slightly.

The drow's eyes looked up toward the fairy. Being a drow, he was also sensitive to other magics, so he knew something of the fairy's was at work when he felt the fairy dust drop on him.

"Hello, Lillyn," Drizzt greeted her, this being the second time they ever talked to each other; if the first could be counted as a first at all. After he spoke, he was dropped gently back down to the ground. Fairy dust effects did not last long enough like pixie dust, and that depended on the race as well.

"Hey there, drow!" Lillyn greeted back. "Young Kirin wishes to know something! And I am asking her for you!"

Fairies also picked up on languages quickly, so this one had no trouble communicating with the elf.

"Make it quick," Fuyumi stated.

"What's your panther's name?"

Drizzt's eyes widened at the mention of the panther. He looked to where Kirin was kneeling, and though he told himself many times not to let his eyes wander there while he worked, he couldn't help but disobey himself now. "Guenhwyvar," he said loudly enough for Kirin to hear.

The young girl perked her head up. "Guenhwyvar?"

"Guenhwyvar," Drizzt nodded.

"Wow." Kirin looked back at the onyx statuette, now with a smile. "I'll have a hard time spelling that."

"Shall I call her for you?" Drizzt asked her.

Lillyn relayed the question to Kirin, who simply shrugged her agreement. But before anything could be said, Leoht let out another roar.

"No! He will order the thing to attack you!"

Kirin put a hand over her ears to avoid becoming deaf. "Leoht, please!" She turned to Lillyn helplessly. "Ask him how to call it out!"

"Whisper it to me," Lillyn suggested to the drow.

He told her softly.

Lillyn flew over and whispered into Kirin's ear.

"Come Guenhwyvar," Kirin repeated a bit slowly, "my shadow."

Black mist issued forth from the onyx statue, slowly forming and solidifying into a sleek, muscled shape. The graceful air of the jungle cat became apparent within the room when it finally took shape, its yellow eyes narrowing out the person who summoned it. It had sensed that its beloved master, Drizzt Do'Urden, had not brought about the summons, but someone else; someone much, much younger.

A ten-year-old human girl.

Guenhwyvar became angry as it remembered the day Drizzt gave it over to Ahnnie and Eld. But because she was in another's hands, the panther could not attack. And neither could she anyway, because of the newly-placed lightning barrier around Kirin.

"H-Hello," Kirin said slowly, using her ability to talk to animals.

Guenhwyvar cocked its head to the side. The sudden flicker of the tail was the only sign the onlookers had of the panther's communication.

"I am Kirin Guan," the little girl continued. "I hear that your name is Guenhwyvar. I won't hurt you. I am a friend." She held her hand out sincerely, loosening the barrier around her a bit.

The panther padded forth slowly, and sniffed the young human's palm. Sensing no danger, the cat slumped down on her paws and twitched her tail back and forth, asking a little question in its mind.

"Drizzt Do'Urden is here," Kirin answered it.

Drizzt rose at the mention of his name (even if it was mispronounced). He could not understand what Kirin was saying, but he could guess at why she said his name. "Guenhwyvar," he whispered softly. "I am here."

The panther, as though it heard him, turned its head back to look. The muscles were tensing for a long leap at its drow master, but Kirin quickly erased all thoughts of that.

"I'm sorry, you can't do that," Kirin said apologetically. "It's not like I want it there, but there's another barrier around this small area and if you try running past it, you'll hit a rock wall."

Guenhwyvar's head rested on its front paws sadly, quite understanding what the girl meant.

"But, I would like to ask you something."

_Ask away, _was the tell-tale flicker of the tail again.

"Could I paint you?"

The tail suddenly froze.

"I feel a bit bad for Drizzt, you see," Kirin explained to the panther. "So, maybe if I paint you a different color, he will find it funny and cheer up."

It was a strange way to cheer someone up, but Guenhwyvar could find no other intention in this young girl's mind. Reluctantly, she consented.

"Great!" Kirin picked up the palette of magical paint in one hand and a paintbrush in another.

"What is she doing?" Fuyumi asked bewilderedly.

Drizzt grew confused. So did Lillyn. Only Leoht understood what the girl wanted to do.

Kirin dabbed at some yellow, then brown, and black, and splashed it on the panther. She closed her eyes to picture the right color in her mind, and when she opened them again, Guenhwyvar was yellow with black-bordered spots and looked exactly like...a leopard!

Drizzt's eyes boggled at the sight. His Guenny turned all spotty! (**A/N: Again, Drizzt did not think that. But my little brother suggested it.)**

Next, the girl took some orange and black and white, and then Guenhwyvar turned striped-patterned like a tiger.

Next was a giraffe.

Then a zebra.

Now a lioness.

And then...

Kirin's paintbrush accidentally hit pink, which she absentmindedly flung on the panther's pelt. Now Guenhwyvar was a nice, rosy color. "Oops," the girl said.

Drizzt did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Kirin gave him a sheepish smile. "It's the Pink Panther...Get it?"

Only Fuyumi and Leoht burst out laughing. Drizzt and Lillyn looked at the panther in complete awe and confusion.

Just then, the bell to the front door rang, interrupting all thoughts and laughs.

"I'll get it," Fuyumi offered. She quickly trotted over to the door and answered it, but no one was in sight. "Hello? Is this a prank? Because if it is, I wouldn't mind turning you boys into-"

"Down here!"

The snow woman looked down. "Oh."

A halfling!

"My name is Regis," the halfling began. "I heard this is where Sanctuary is, so...I came here hoping to find a home."


	8. Drizzt Gets Hit On

There's this one time in one of the books of Icewind Dale that they mention Drizzt taking out his purse.

I know Salvatore means 'purse' as in 'wallet' or 'leather bag', but I just can't help but imagine Drizzt taking out a pretty pink handbag with pretty pink roses...Forgive me, Drizzt...

Also, this chapter, **you get a bit of a look at the neighborhood in which the Quang's live**. But note: Havenshire is not a real town. I just made it up.

You may also begin to notice that the time sequence of the books is cut much shorter. I apologize if it bothers you, but this way all that I have planned for this fic will fall into place nicely.

Plus I made Entreri a teenager...because...actually, I don't even know why. But I hope you still enjoy it! And please review!

* * *

"Where did you originally come from?" Long Ha asked Regis.

"Vegas," Regis replied earnestly.

"Vegas?" Kirin asked. "As in, _Las _Vegas?"

"There's no other Vegas," the halfling said as light-heardedly as he could. He still couldn't shake the off the feeling that Pasha Pook's assassin, Artemis Entreri, was following him, even though he lost the ninja back at the bus station. The most probable course of action Entreri would do first would be to head back to the Thieve's Guild casino and report the halfling's departure to the Pasha, which gave Regis a reasonable head start; especially since Sanctuary was located in Georgia.

But still, that nagging feeling that he was not quite out of danger yet bothered him worse than being faced by a thousand armed policemen.

And worse; with the reputation this family carried as being direct descendants of the legendary Guan Gong, they'd definitely burn him to a crisp if they so much as found out, much less turn him over to the Pasha.

Regis put a hand to his chest, where the ruby amulet he stole from the Pasha hid underneath his shirt. For half a year, he and Entreri played cat-and-mouse, all for this jewel..._The Pasha is such a stingy man, _he thought, trying to cheer himself up.

"Do you have heart problems?" Long Ha asked again.

"N-no," Regis replied.

The old man scrutinized the halfling carefully. Regis tried not to squirm as he continued meeting the soft yet harsh eyes of Quang Long Ha.

"You hide a magical item," the old man said at last.

"I...I..." A magical item? But Regis carried nothing enchanted. Unless...

"No worries." Long Ha relaxed in his wheelchair. "Many races come here hiding secrets and dreadful pasts. A magical item is not so different. Be reassured, Regis, that I will not endanger your privacy if you wish to say nothing."

Regis let out a sigh of relief.

Kirin fingered one of her pigtails as she watched the halfling carefully. She was the only Quang child attending this conference, other than Drake, since the three older ones were still attending to their training. Guenwhyvar was thoroughly washed of the magic paint and sent back to her home, while Drizzt, the drow elf, was told to stay downstairs and out of sight from the halfling. Regis seemed jumpy when he entered the house and to make him more nervous would have been unkind.

"So where would you like to start out?" Fuyumi asked the halfling. "The dorms, maybe?"

"I'd rather venture out into Sanctuary as soon as I can," said Regis.

"How far out?"

"As far as I prefer."

"Are you adventurous?" Kirin asked him.

"Not very," Regis said honestly.

"All right then, let's start out!" Kirin jumped up, and Leoht followed her. "Grandpa, can we go yet? I want to show him everything!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Regis interjected. He stood up as well. "I...I, um, don't do well with humans around me right now, so how about when I am more used to it?"

The young girl seemed crestfallen, but understood his predicament. She had seen it before in many a dwarf, elf, and even a vampire's eyes.

"If you wish, you can go alone," Long Ha said, "though I truly would advise you to have a guide through the dorms area."

"How about me?" Leoht offered.

"You'll eat him," Kirin said.

"Ooh, ooh, pick me!" Lillyn stood from her perch on Draky's foot and fluttered over and around Regis. "I'm an excellent guide, you know."

Regis smiled, but it was more at the stunning gold fairy dust than at any feelings of relief. "If you insist on that...then, why not?"

* * *

The assassin stopped slipped silently into the decorative room, making no sound whatsoever. All his life, he had been trained in the ways of stealth and secrecy by masters in Japan, who also worked for the same boss as he did; Pasha Pook.

After checking every town and city, even some of the deserts, of Nevada, Entreri finally had something to confirm. It would not be pleasing to the Pasha though, for it did not bring his magical ruby any closer. And because of the Pasha's slipping confidence without it, he'd be losing a few million dollars worth of deals this year.

"What news have you got of that theiving halfling?" Pasha Pook asked Artemis when he announced himself with a soft sigh.

"He has left Nevada entirely," the assassin replied. "Apparently, he didn't want to go far at first, but now he's realized the implications."

The Pasha sneered at this new peice of information. "Where has he headed off to?"

"My best guess is that he's on the other side of America," Entreri continued. "Most likely he's stolen enough money to board a plane, so he must be there by now. The only problem is if he seeks out Sanctuary."

Pook, though he knew Entreri wouldn't take long in finding the halfling, especially if Regis was still in the country, would face many problems in trying to pry the halfling out of Sanctuary. The place was run by fierce fighter mages and they were known to defend the privacy of those they sheltered very tightly. After all, it was the only haven for other goodly races nowadays; you wouldn't be able to see a group of elves or clan of dwarves anywhere else.

And considering the time it took for Entreri to confirm the halfling's disappearance, the second possibility might have already been fulfilled.

"Damn!" Pook cursed. "Damn that halfling!"

Entreri kept his stoic look, guessing just as much as the Pasha that Regis had already found Sanctuary. The seventeen-year-old brushed away some of his growing, shaggy hair; he'd need to have it cut soon; and bore his eyes into Pook's. "However, we would be wasting considerable time if we are wrong."

"I can check in my crystal ball," LaValle offered the Pasha.

"Yes, do check," Pook agreed.

When LaValle went away to his curtained-off room, the Pasha stood up from his throne and paced around. In all the years he sheltered Regis at the casino, he'd never had the halfling steal anything from him. Perhaps he had been too careless in secretly opening the box to his ruby stash while Regis was in the room; though the midget's back was turned, Pook had been too occupied to see if the halfling turned, just a little, to see what he was up to.

The scryer soon came back, his face grim. "A magical ward blocked me off," he explained.

The Pook whirled around angrily. "_What_?"

"The only reason for that happening is if I tried scrying into another wizard's territory," LaValle continued, "which I have not; I was searching for Regis, after all; but then, that can only mean Regis has taken refuge under a wiz-"

"Which wizard?" Pook asked grouchily.

"I couldn't tell, but I did try checking on the surrounding area."

"Well? Any results?"

"It appears Regis has found refuge in the town of Havenshire, Georgia."

"Georgia?" Entreri asked, speaking up for the first time since LaValle's interruption. "Isn't that where Sanctuary is?"

"Well, yes," said LaValle. Such a fact was common knowledge among the world of wizards and endangered humanoids.

"Terrible," the Pasha muttered. "If he is in Havenshire..."

"But there is a way!" The scryer jumped slightly at his own declaration. "The Quang's have three children around Artemis' age who should be enrolled into a nearby high school. If we can get Art-"

"Which high school, you moron?" Pook asked. "Do you think that there is only _one _school to a town?"

"But that should be no problem for a ninja. To find a school, that is."

Entreri wanted to shout out his protestation; _him, _go to _high school_?; but it was already too late when the Pasha gave him a hopeful glance.

"You are the proper age," the Pasha reasoned. "And you are indebted to me..."

"I will not," he replied coolly.

"I will reward you!"

"I will not."

"You can have brand new weapons!"

"Still, no."

"How about a new jutsu scroll?"

"I'm fine with what I know now, thank you very much."

"You..." Pook thought for a moment. "You can kill either of the Quang's at any time!"

That last one stunned everyone, even Pook himself. It was blurted out rather suddenly, out of impulse, and the Pasha abruptly wished he could take it back; if Entreri was truly unable to defeat them, that is. If the assassin could really wipe them out, Pook would send him off with a wide smile.

"Really..."

Pasha indeed smiled widely. The assassin was hooked!

* * *

Another day passed, marking Drizzt's fourth day on the surface, but to us surface dwellers, it is more widely known as Thursday. And this Thursday, after school, Valkyrie was bringing home some friends. Just for a visit.

"Do you have to?" Huynh asked her in Elven, for privacy's sake.

"Breanna just got dumped," Val said. "And I promised to cheer her up. Then Katelyn sort of jumped in, then Darcy, then Eleni, and also Chelsea-"

"Enough!" the boy huffed. "Whatever you do, just keep your little tea-party from entering the backyard. And from sneaking upstairs. _And _make sure that Drizzt does not go near them!"

"You make Drizzt sound like a pervert."

"What if he is?"

Val raised an eyebrow, then shook her head. "Never mind. Yes, I promise to all those things, but; Drizzt _is _our family servant, even if he only has three days left. Grandpa won't want him to stay shut in his room forever."

"Then put up extra barriers," Huynh said, and left to go back inside. This time, to his room.

The group of teenage girls, standing outside the Quang house, looked at Huynh inquisitively.

"Is this a bad time?" Eleni asked.

Breanna, a mess of tears and smeared makeup, was blowing her nose loudly into a tissue. "I...I'm so sorry...to...bother you...at this time...!"

"No, don't be," Valkyrie comforted her. "You're a friend, and this is what friends do."

"So like, is it ok if I ask Conner out?" Darcy, ever the tactless one, asked.

It only made Breanna sob harder.

"Did you have to be so straightforward?" Eleni asked angrily, putting two hands around the crying girl's shaking shoulders. "First of all, he just dumped Breanna; curse him! Second, Conner is my brother, ok? And it sounds totally weird to hear you guys talk about him as if he's some kind of object.

"But he's so _hot!_" Darcy protested.

"Are you here just so you can shove that in her face?" Katelyn huffed.

"If you're not here for the pity party, then you can leave," Chelsea snapped.

"Guys! Stop it!" Valkyrie interrupted. "Chel's right, Darcy...if you're just going to be here so you can bother Breanna about Conner, then please leave. I don't even know why you're here; you don't usually hang out with us anyway."

"Well _excuuuse _me! I want to comfort her too." She dodged past the others and helped herself at the door. "Plus I've never been to Val's house! I really want to see it."

"Don't get too excited, then." Valkyrie led the others into the house after Darcy. "But after ten minutes, you're leav-"

She was interrupted by a sudden, high-pitched girly squeal that denoted excitement, from none other than Darcy. "Omigosh Omigosh...who is he?"

"Who's who?" Val asked, horrified, already suspecting at who the heartstealer meant.

Drizzt covered his ears with his hands when he heard the damning sound. In the initial confusion, Ahnnie quickly threw an English pill in the drow's mouth, which was swallowed and allowed the magic to settle in his system. Now that Darcy was practically panting for breath (and it got quieter), the dark elf lowered his hands and looked curiously at the visitors. He noticed their skin tone and hair color differed from the Quangs. They had peachy colored skin (Darcy, however, was lightly tanned), and the hair varied from brown to blonde to red.

"Hello," he said, meaning to get off at a good start...if that was possible.

"Hey hottie," Darcy said, creeping up too closely for Drizzt's liking.

"I am not haughty," Drizzt said.

"You're so funny!" The tanned girl put a hand on his shoulder and laughed. "And seriously, you're totally hot. Or cute, whichever you prefer."

Under the pill's influence, Drizzt could only understand 'hot' as in, heated up, and 'cute' as in, adorable; baby-adorable. "I do not feel hot, neither am I a young child. If you want someone 'cute', then perhaps you should see Draky." He pointed a finger at the baby sitting with Kirin on the couch; just before the girls came, the two trusted him enough to let him sit and watch the Blue Planet documentary with them. It was one of Kirin's orders, anyway.

"Oh, no, no, no, too young," Darcy tsked.

"What the heck?" Katelyn, her mouth wide open, stared at Drizzt. "Who is he?"

Chelsea did a small wolf-whistle.

"Maybe he's Val's boyfriend," Eleni taunted.

Breanna smiled; but then she remembered what 'boyfriend' meant and started crying again.

"No, Breanna, I didn't mean..."

Drizzt, sensing the girl's distress, moved away from Darcy and came up to Breanna. "What is the matter? Are you all right? Are you wounded anywhere?"

"Her heart is the one that's wounded," Katelyn explained.

"You are ill?" Drizzt asked Breanna again.

"No, what I mean is, she got dumped."

"And so what?" Darcy asked irritatedly.

Drizzt spun around and faced her with equal irritation. "If you are not considerate of her feelings, then you do not have to be here. Being dumped is not a matter anyone can brush away as easily as you!"

"WHAT?" Darcy shrieked, unable to think that a hot guy actually berated her.

"Uh..." Val looked from Drizzt to Darcy, and for the first time in a long time, was unable to think. "Um, stop arguing?"

"And what if the lake she was dumped in inhabited sharks?" Drizzt pressed on with the new knowledge of the animal he was watching about. "She could have died. And yet you-"

"Drizzt!" Valkyrie snapped, making everyone jump. "This is the modern world, and being dumped here can either mean what you meant, or it could mean being rejected by the person you love. Romantically."

"Oh." The drow sank back a bit to process this new information. "But still, you are quite a selfish and inconsiderable person," he said to Darcy with finality.

The enraged teenager drew back her hand and sped it forward, meaning to slap the dark elf, who had hurt her pride. But Drizzt was an experienced enough fighter (and no more did he want to be physically abused like he was back in House Do'Urden!), so his hand came up quicker and caught her wrist.

"You solve nothing by lashing out," he retorted.

Darcy scoffed as a last attempt to make her look like the victim, then stormed out of the house, beet-red with anger.

"That was less than ten minutes," Chelsea remarked.

"Th-Thank you," Breanna sniffed.

"You're welcome," said Drizzt.

"Wow!" Eleni breathed. "No guy has ever done that to her before! You...you're amazing!"

"What I did was hardly amazing," Drizzt disclaimed. "Anyone can say that to her face, and if the 'guys' cannot then perhaps they are cowards."

"Yeah, well, its her charms that prevent anyone from doing anything," Katelyn said.

"She is a witch?" the drow asked.

"Yeah, that's the word!" Eleni encouraged him.

"She can't really do magic," Valkyrie added, in order to explain things clearly to Drizzt. "But some boys are just...how shall I say it...ah, captured by her outer beauty."

"While she has absolutely zero inner beauty," Chelsea continued.

"You get the point now, Drizzt?" Valkyrie asked him.

"Yes."

"Good. Now I shall introduce you to my friends; from school." Valkyrie turned and pointed at each girl, going from left-to-right. "Katelyn Sanders. Chelsea Stone. Eleni Thistledown. Breanna di Angelo. And the girl you scolded just now was Darcy Evers." She shifted her hand towards Drizzt now. "Katelyn, Chelsea, Eleni, Breanna, this is Drizzt Do'Urden...from Jamaica."

"He's an exchange student," Ahnnie supplied.

"Nice to meet you, Drizzt Do'Urden," Katelyn greeted. "Nice hair, too; it contrasts very well with the dark tone of your skin. Did you dye it?"

Drizzt was about to answer. "N-"

"Yes," Valkyrie interrupted. "He did. Dye it." She did her best to smile composedly.

"Ooh, and those ears..." Chelsea inspected the drow's pointy elven ears. "How'd you get them like that?"

"Surgery," Ahnnie explained to Val's relief.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Eleni asked Val.

"What? No-"

"Because honestly," Eleni continued, ignoring the magician girl. "He's so totally handsome. How long is he staying here?"

"For the spring," Ahnnie said.

"But it's funny," Chelsea began. "I didn't think 'Drizzt' was a Jamaican name. Neither is 'Do'Urden'."

"It's not just Jamaicans living there," Kirin put in helpfully, but kept her eyes on the TV screen. "Kind of like here in America. Everyone's mixed."

"I guess that's true," Chelsea agreed.

"Sounds Croatian, with maybe an Indian mix?" Katelyn said.

"Bingo!" Ahnnie exclaimed.

Drizzt ran a hand through his hair. He was a bit embarrassed, mostly because of how the new girls kept complimenting on his looks; he never had anyone do that to him before. And he felt a bit strange being labeled as a Jamaican exchange student who was half-Croatian and half-Indian, especially because he knew nothing about what that meant.

"Hey, Breanna." Eleni nudged the sniffling girl with her elbow. "Why don't you forget my brother and focus on this guy instead? He has so much more morals than anyone you can ever find."

"Yeah, go do it!" Chelsea agreed. "We'll be right behind you!"

_And they're saying this in front of someone they don't even know well, _Valkyrie moaned in her mind.

"Well," Drizzt started, "I do hope Breanna is no longer saddened, but...I cannot oblige to that sort of union."

"It's ok," Breanna said softly. "I...I don't even think of you like that anyway..."

"Why is it that most girls fall for guys who're complete jerks, and never for the good ones?" Chelsea asked exasperatedly while shaking her head.

"She has a whole life ahead of her," Valkyrie remarked. "And plenty of guys. So, why don't we send some people off to buy us some soda and forget the things of the past?" She looked pointedly at Ahnnie as she asked the last question.

"Why me?" Ahnnie asked her back.

"Because you're not under thirteen and your secret admirer works at that convenience store," Valkyrie explained.

"Shall I go with her, then?" Drizzt asked.

"No, leave her be. She has plenty of friends where she's going." The bespectacled teenager gave her cousin a wry smile.

"Fine." Ahnnie grabbed her messenger bag, slung it over her shoulder, and walked to the front door. "The usual?" she asked.

"Make it Dr. Pepper this time," Valkyrie ordered.

Ahnnie, with an invisible Eld following her, walked out of the house and into the brightness of the March afternoon. She dreaded going out much in the spring, and the evidence of that became suddenly itchy eyes and a runny nose.

"Achoo!" she sneezed, and reached within her bag for a soft tissue. After she relieved her nose, she sighed and began to walk down the sidewalk. The gas station was just two blocks around the corner, and she could get to it in time if she speed-walked.

But a gruff voice stopped her.

"Well, well, if it ain't one o' the zookeepers!"

Ahnnie turned and saw Roddy McGristle sitting on a rocking chair underneath the shade of his canopied porch. "Hello, Mr. McGristle." Despite all he did, she was instructed to keep calm and friendly around him.

"Hello my butt!" he spat. "I just saw one o' yer cousin's friends storming out o' here. I should call the police on that!"

"That was nothing serious, Mr. McGristle," Ahnnie said.

"And ye led a cryin' girl into the goddamn house against her wishes," he continued. "Maybe ye tortured her? Finished her off, with one o' those flying beaked lions ye have?"

"She's being comforted right now because she just got dumped, and we have no griffins in the house or backyard."

"Aha! Ye knew what those flapping felines are!" He jumped up. "That proves it! Ye fed her to the griffin!"

Ahnnie scrunched her nose in confusion. "But it's common knowledge that a lion-bodied, eagle-winged and eagle-headed creature is a griffin-"

"Naw it ain't! I didn't know it!"

"Then that was just yourself," she muttered under her breath. But out loud to her neighbor, she said, "Have a nice day, Mr. McGristle."

"Come back here!" he demanded. "I wasn't finished with ye!"

She shrugged it off and continued walking. Eld, at her side, whispered to her: "What a crazy old man."

"I know. He does that everytime he sees us with visitors."

They rounded the bend at the second block and walked across the empty street to the Shell gas station right ahead. Here, Eld pulled the cowl of his cloak purposefully around his nose; most humanoid creatures do not like the smells of gasoline and other modern waste-stuffs, and sometimes fall fatally ill when they inhale it. The fatal part is most unlikely, but it is something they must guard against.

The both of them entered the convenience store of the station and immediately started through the refrigerated display of drinks for the Dr. Pepper bottles.

"How about just buying the big jug so you can pour it out into the cups?" Eld suggested.

"Good idea," Ahnnie decided, and heaved one out from its place. "Ooh, four ninety-nine; good price." She carried the soda over to the cashier, who quickly scanned it.

He was bored, had brown hair, and wore a perpetual scowl. "Plus tax makes it five-"

The man was bumped away and replaced by a Chinese boy, about Val's age, who did not regret stealing his co-worker's position. "You can work the other machine," he said, and the other cashier did not protest (mostly because he didn't care either way).

"Hi Xiao Long," Ahnnie greeted him. "You always do that when I come here; why?"

Xiao Long, sixteen-years-old and working on a part-time job, went to a different high school than the Quang's but used to be a childhood friend of theirs. Ever since the beginning of his high-school life, he spent not much time with the Quangs and sorely regretted it.

"B-Because you know me better," Xiao Long reasoned. "Never talk to strangers, you know."

Ahnnie gave him five dollars and a quarter. He took the money and then began fumbling through for the change.

"Hold on just a sec, I..." He gave her twelve cents. "There we go."

"Thanks," Ahnnie said, and held the big bottle in her arms. "I really appreciate it."

"Wait!" Xiao Long put a hand on her shoulder. "I mean, um..."

"What?"

"I..." His eyes searched hers frantically. "Can I come over this weekend?"

"Oh, you want to spar with Huynh?"

"No, I..." He blushed as their eyes locked. "I just want to come over. That's all."

Ahnnie thought for a moment. The annual Blueberry Festival was coming that same weekend on Saturday in Sanctuary; nope, Xiao Long could not come that day; so after a moment she said, "How about Sunday?"

"Sunday's good," he concluded.

"Do you have any work that day?" Ahnnie asked.

"Nope! It's one of those rare days of the week that I'm not busy," he proclaimed.

"Good! It's been a long time since you've been over anyways."

"So you want me there?" he asked her hopefully.

Ahnnie gave him a smile. "Of course! How can I not?" Unaware of the increase in his blushing, Ahnnie waved to him and exited the gas station.

"That was painful to watch," Eld remarked grumpily.

"You and Huynh react the same whenever I talk to him or other guys," she pouted. "Why?"

"Because if you put too much trust in a man, you might end up like Breanna."

"Hey. It's not like he likes me, anyways! And who was the secret admirer Val was talking about? I didn't see anybody like that."

"Oh gods." Eld shook his head in playful disdain. "You're so dense."

The rest of the walk was carried through with their joking and discussion of the upcoming Festival. Everyone in Sanctuary was buzzing about it, but this particular day the Quang children had to stay in the house so as not to invoke the curiosity of some teenage girls.

When Ahnnie got back, McGristle was still waiting.

"So ye bought some soda," he leered, narrowing his eyes at her. This time he brought out his two dogs, who growled at the sight of the girl.

"Yes, I did, Mr. McGristle."

"Is it fer spilling on the poor girl's wounds?"

"Breanna's not physically wounded, Mr. McGristle. This soda is for drinking only."

"Then perhaps yer gonna force it down her throat? That's a crime, I say!"

"Your mind is more of a crime," Ahnnie whispered as she entered the house. "Dr. Pepper!" she announced happily.

"Yay!" Katelyn cheered, and did the honors of unscrewing the cap and pouring it into cups, which were already set on the living room coffee table by none other than Drizzt.

The drow nodded at Ahnnie's return, but his attention was instantly taken away when he saw the fizzy soda. He sniffed at his cup and took a sip. "This beer is quite delicious," he remarked.

If Eld wasn't there (invisibly) to support the liter of Dr. Pepper, Katelyn surely would have dropped and spilled it in her surprise. The others, even Draky for some reason, stared at the drow in equal horror.

"What is the matter?" Drizzt asked confusedly.

"This isn't alcohol," Valkyrie slowly said.

"You drink alcohol?" Chelsea asked him softly.

_I did, just a bit, back in Menzoberranzan, _Drizzt wanted to say, but thought better of it. These people didn't know anything about it or drow, as Valkyrie whispered to him when Ahnnie was gone buying the soda. "Not much."

"When I said exchange student," Valkyrie said to her bewildered friends, "I meant college-exchange student."

"Then he should know the difference between soda and beer," Katelyn said. "That soda is non-alcoholic..."

Now that Drizzt knew better about soda, he drank his up in three gulps and quickly refilled it.

"He's just kidding with you!" Ahnnie piped up. "Everyone, laugh!"

And so everyone did, but they were not natural laughs, and sounded rather strange than amused.

"A toast," Eleni spoke up, holding her cup high, this new declaration erasing all thoughts of Drizzt's 'joke'. "To a new life for Breanna, to her release from the horrible boy that is my brother, and to the hottie known as Drizzt Do'Urden!"

Drizzt lifted his cup too with a blush, and so did Valkyrie, Chelsea, Ahnnie, Katelyn, and Kirin. But Breanna seemed reluctant about it.

"I...I can't," the girl sputtered, and again was on the verge of tears.

"You have to!" Eleni protested. "My stupid brother is a jerk! He doesn't deserve you!"

"But...But I _loved _him!"

Drizzt gently let his hand down and put the cup on the table. "I know little of what you call 'romantic love'," he said slowly. "I have never felt it before, and the people I were around showed none of it at all. But I do think that if your heart is worth more than the one for whom you lament, then surely there should be someone better than him for you."

Breanna's eyes rimmed with tears. "I was his girlfriend for only a week," she said. "But...But you're right!" She raised Drizzt's cup hand up so she could tap all of the others' cups. "To all that Eleni said!"

Once the toast was done, they all drank the soda and joined Kirin and Draky to watch something other than Blue Planet.


	9. I Am Sorry

**Finally got Legacy, but with my hectic schedule I only got to read the first four chapters**. It's kind of tense how Wulfgar and Catti-brie's relationship is turning into a love triangle...(Drizzt-Cattie-brie-Wulfgar). It really makes me wonder; **who does Cattie-brie truly love**?

Plus, I'd have to agree with OhShirleyUJest (pardon my use of your username. If you don't like it, please tell me and I'll edit it out.) ; Guenhwyvar's role in the sixth book was pretty sweet! Not just sweet, but whatever else is beyond sweet! Wow! I never knew Guen had so many buddies :).

And pardon if the last chapter was a bit wierd. I'm homeschooled and the only insight on a teenager girl's reactions and behaviors other than mine own is limited to these three girls in the neighborhood...and they act exactly like Darcy and whoever else screamed "hottie!" at Drizzt.

Well, never mind. Here is the next chapter to Not-So-Journ! The Blueberry Festival will begin next chapter-and that's when the real drama starts.

* * *

That evening Friday, as Drizzt's indenture period reduced itself down to two days, the setting sun found him and the Quang family watching some skits togther. Just in case, the drow was fed another language pill so that he could understand.

"_All right now, one of the most important things about beauty pageants is that sometimes there are foreign contestants and judges."_

_"Oh yes, I know that."_

_"So this will be a test of your knowledge of foreign languages! Most important of them all is English. Are you ready?"_

_"Yes!"_

_"Ok. So. Let's say there are two models. One stands ten meters away from the other with a big honeydew on her head. The second stands across from her with a knife and throws it, hitting the honeydew with a loud THUNK! When she's done, she proudly proclaims: 'I am Sinbad!' In other words, 'Toi la Sinbad!'"_

_"That's right, because 'Toi la_' (toy la_) means 'I am'."_

_"Good, good. Now one more example, with two other models. This time the distance is twenty meters and instead of a honeydew, there is an orange on the target's head. And instead of a knife, the thrower uses a bow and arrow. When she notches the arrow and lets it loose, hitting the fruit squarely in the middle, she turns to the crowd and says, 'I am Robin Hood!'"_

_"Wow, you're so good! My turn?"_

_"Of course."_

_"Well, in my example I would have the other model stand thirty feet away and instead of an orange or honeydew I'll use a lemon."_

_"Wow! How daring!"_

_"And I will use neither a knife or bow and arrow but a scimitar."_

_"Amazing!"_

_"So when I throw it in the air with a FWOOSH and it hits, I will say:_

_I am...sorry."_

(-Hoai Linh and Van Long; two famous comedians from Vietnam.

The skit was written by Huu Loc. May he rest in peace.)

**Note: This is part of the skit translated to its exact meaning in English. There may be some flaws (like the orange, which is supposed to be an apple, and the one who shoots the apple is not Robin Hood but William Tell), but you could hardly blame anyone who's never really lived in America or England as long as we have. Plus I am not sure if the honeydew thing can be credited to Sinbad. But anyways, whether you found it funny or not, I hope you got the joke.**

Ahnnie and Kirin burst out laughing at Hoai Linh's (_hw-igh lin_) last line; Drake did too, but it was mostly the sounds of the audience laughing in the TV that made him laugh. Valkyrie and Huynh sat as cool and calm as stern-faced statues, but Val did crack a smile.

"Get it?" Ahnnie asked Drizzt as she wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes. "He..she...she says..."

"She or he?" Drizzt asked inquiringly. The actor acting as the beauty pageant contestant on screen looked very much like a beautiful human female, but his, or her, voice sounded masculine, even if it was a little high-pitched. 'Twas yet another strange, surface world specter...

"Hoai Linh is a he," Val explained. "Cross-dressing is a part of his act. It's like his style, sort of. He does it because of how skinny he is, and he's most definitely not homosexual, if you were thinking that."

"His squeaky voice can impersonate almost anybody!" Kirin jumped in. "This one time, he did Tuan Ngoc (_tw-UNG ng-oh-p)_, who's a deep singer and it was an exact copy!"

"How..." Drizzt struggled with the words to say it. Besides, he also found how strange it was to hear himself speaking Vietnamese, with the tones going up and down and sometimes both. "...strange."

"Strange? It's awesome!"

Drizzt found himself frowning. "I am not sure, Phuong Anh..."

"Call me Ahnnie."

"...where I come from, males would be hard pressed to explain why they've gone and dressed like females."

"There just seems to be no humor at all in Menzoberranzan," Ahnnie sighed. "No offense, but you're a a good example of it."

The drow found himself very uncomfortable with this revelation. As he noticed, he seemed immune to the jokes of the surface world. Whatever these humans found funny, he could not. Especially the "_I am...sorry," _punch line. If _he_ ever ended up spearing someone's forehead with a scimitar, which of course he would never happen, he wouldn't put it so lightly and let people laugh at it. It seemed that humans found the notion of getting hurt or killed, or hurting and killing, a very funny prospect.

Huynh grunted and heaved himself so that he sat straighter than he did before on the couch. "I'm a bit surprised..."

"What?" His little sister leaned in to hear his words.

"I thought...I thought that maybe..."

She leaned in much closer now. Even Drizzt found himself straining his ears to listen to the youth; rarely was it that the boy let anyone see him so nervous and confused, except maybe Namiq but even then he and his guardian would be alone in the privacy of his room. To Drizzt though, this side of Huynh was nonexistent, til now.

"I thought that maybe Drizzt..." Huynh forced his eyes on the drow. "Well, that Drizzt would've demanded seeing a bloody demonstration of the scimitar impaling the...model..."

Silence.

"What kind of a person do you think I am?" the drow asked softly. But no one heard his question.

"If he were that violent," Val said with a frown, "he would've used his own scimitars to show us."

"Which is also the reason that I'm surprised at all," Huynh admitted.

Ahnnie grabbed her brother's arm so tightly, he flinched and looked at her with a bewildered question in his eyes. "Could this be? Are you...are you finally admitting that Drizzt is nice?"

"I..."

But meanwhile, in Drizzt's mind, he ignored their voices and repeated his question over and over again; partly to himself, and partly to Huynh. _What kind of a person do you think I am?_

And yet the biggest question of all looming in his minde was; why? Why was it that, all week long, he had been behaving as best as he could and in the way his principles would demand of him and yet...and yet Huynh was _surprised, _just because he didn't enter into any drow bloodlust? Though he had not expected anything lighter from the boy, or from any future human or humanoid, he still felt a pang of hurt. He knew that drow were not yet to be accepted amongst the surface dwellers so quickly, but still...wasn't he different? Hadn't he shown them?

Ahnnie put a hand on the drow's shoulder and shook it emphatically. "Drizzt! Did you hear? My oaf of a brother said-" But she stopped, eyes wide, when she saw a look in his purple eyes; a look she remembered to be one of extreme emotion, but one she mistook for anger.

They both held their stares for a long, long while, and it seemed as if they were holding a staring contest. When the tension was too much, and when Ahnnie grew to be fearful of those piercing lavender orbs, she dropped her grip and made a feint of being thirsty so she could walk to the kitchen; all the way there, she hugged herself tight, as if what she saw chilled her.

_Even she is afraid of me, _Drizzt thought with despair. _And she has been vouching for me all this time. _He couldn't take it anymore. During his stay at the Quang house, he felt the predjudice against him, understood it for what it was, but perhaps he expected too much from these people. And on a friendly evening together, he discovered it and how weak he stood in the face of it.

"Drizzt?" Huynh leaned around from his seat next to his sisters'; she was the only one blocking him from the dark elf. In that subtle moment, everything seemed froze, everything silent. "What, didn't you hear me?"

The drow cast his eyes down. He hoped that the younger ones of the family had not seen what Ahnnie saw. "I have not." Then he left for his room.

* * *

Nighttime came, and along with it, sleep.

But not for Drizzt; not tonight.

When he was first called from his room after dinner that night and invited to watch the skits, he thought that it would be a chance for him to finally bond with the Quang children, especially Huynh and Valkyrie. The two oldest always kept their distance from him, even Valkyrie, who talked more to him than Huynh did, and it doubly surprised him when he actually got a chance to sit close with them. He was actually a lot happier than before, even if he took the joke in a stoic stride. He blamed himself for being so sensitive, so...so unable to appreciate the fact that Huynh had no reason to fear him. Or maybe Huynh said something else...he didn't know. And couldn't; because it was too late to ask the boy right now and when he had the chance, he didn't listen. Maybe he should have laughed at the joke, even if he didn't find it funny. He might have been able to stay longer. Perhaps he should have laughed at all the other jokes the skits provided, and perhaps-

A series of soft, but rapid and urgent, knocks descended upon his door. The drow sat up stiffly, barely making a noise on his sheets and blankets. Who was it at this hour?

"Psst!" a young voice hissed. "It's me, Ahnnie, no one else! Let me in!"

Drizzt's eyes widened; she came, and without Eld, too! As inviting as it was, Drizzt could not bring himself to open the door and thus send her into her own punishment. So he kept quiet.

"Drizzt? You asleep? But I heard you move!"

The drow wondered how she could have done that. Then he remembered that her Second Ability was Stealth; it was that, or she was bluffing.

"Please? We won't be talking inside your room, if it makes you uncomfortable. I have a place where we can go."

_The living room_? Drizzt thought warily. He remembered that it was heavily padded with barriers and wards and locks so that no one could harm any of the Quang household...but then concluded that that didn't mean anything that went on in there was sound proof. So where were they to go?

"This is urgent!"

_No_, Drizzt thought of saying. Instead, he lay down, and did his best to impersonate a soft snore.

"You're bluffing!"

Drizzt scrunched his eyebrows. How did she know?

"Ever since you've come here you've begun to snore loudly. I could hear it even in my bedroom."

Curses. His wariness was getting too soft with this luxurious life. And to think of him, snoring loudly, while dreaming...

"Just let me in. You're awake, and I know it."

"So what?" he challenged testily. "Even if I am awake, I can choose whether or not I want to open the door."

There was silence outside for a while, and Drizzt heard her feet shuffle. "I can open this door very easily if I wanted to, you know, and I wouldn't need you to agree. But...but I'm asking you because I'm respecting your privacy..."

Drizzt raised an eyebrow at this.

"Even if you still disagree, I wouldn't open it!" she added quickly, to emphasize her meaning.

"What do you want to talk about?" he finally asked.

"Things."

"What things?"

"I...well, first, I want to say that...I'm sorry. Sorry for making you angry."

"Angry? I was not angry."

"But...But the way you looked..."

Drizzt heaved a sigh, and knew then that what transpired between them was a misunderstanding. "I looked with despair, Phuong Anh."

"Ahnnie."

He ignored that. "At that moment, I felt...unhappy with how your brother appraised me."

"When he said he was surprised?"

"Yes."

"Well..." He heard her elbow, or hand, bump on the door. "He said something afterwards but you didn't hear it, didn't you?"

"Not at all."

There was another pause, but it was shorter than the last time. "He said...he said that he might consider you to be nice. That he wouldn't torture you anymore; not that he did, anyway." Her feet shuffled again. "Forgive him for his actions those past few days...he only meant to impress Grandpa as oldest male of the house. 'Cause, you know, males are considered dominant here. But that's a cliche thought nowadays." She sighed. "How else should I put it...? Oh yes, my brother is the kind of person who would go anorexic if the girl he liked called him fat." That made her giggle.

Drizzt, as always, could not even smile at it. "Many priestesses would go anorexic if Lolth found them displeasing," he said quietly to himself.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." He sucked in some breath and reclined down on the bed. "And of your apology...you need not my forgiveness."

Ahnnie gasped in shock. "Why? Did we offend you that bad?"

"No, not that at all. But you shouldn't ask for it because, I did not feel offended in the first place."

"But you said you were unhappy..."

"I meant that I was hurt."

Another unpleasing silence.

"Would that you could have responded to my gaze differently," he whispered to himself. "Instead of hanging your head with fear..."

"What?"

"Nothing." But his phrase came out with some bafflement and bewilderment because the tone in which she asked her question was...shaky...When he heard a soft sniff, his suspicions were confirmed. "Phuong Anh...are you crying?"

"No. And I told you to call me Ahnnie," she defiantly said. But still she sniffed.

"Even so, something is wrong."

"I'm just...I'm sorry...again...because, well, when I saw you like that...I honestly thought you were in one of your bad moods. I got a bit scared. And I was totally inconsiderate of you...I'm so, so sorry."

"As I said, you need not beg me for forgiveness."

She gave a shaky laugh. "What...what makes you think I'd beg you? It's not like you're a...a king or whatever..."

For the first time since he came to the surface world, Drizzt could understand that human joke. And he chuckled at it. "How silly of me. Yes, indeed, why would you beg?"

* * *

From outside the window, Regis blew his nose on a handkerchief. The speeches were so touching, just so sad, even if he couldn't figure out the relationship between the two speakers. But he knew one thing; they definitely weren't lovers.

He didn't mean to spy; he was just bored that night, with nothing to do and when he heard the talking...he couldn't help it.

But little did he know that a drow, a black elf, was the subject of the apologies...

* * *

This chapter was a bit...I dunno...sad? And it is short. Shorter than the others. I meant it to be that way as a kind of intro to the next chapter, which is gonna be long...very long...Or at least I hope so. And don't misunderstand the talk between Ahnnie and Drizzt. I still intend for Drizzy to meet Cattie-brie, and this sort of talk between them is just a friendly talk. That is all.

:) Please review!


	10. The Blueberry Festival: Part 1

Now onto Blueberry Festival! Some real combat-magic action will take place here, don't worry. _And_...I'd hate to spoil it to you, but who cares. It's just a teensy revelation.

Drizzt will meet somebody he's met years ago who may possibly hate him now. There, not too spoil-ish, isn't it?

Oh yeah, one question: How old is Drizzt as of Sojourn? Please tell me. The timelines somehow don't add up to me and some people tell me that as of there he was 182 years old...

((The Battlehammers (plus one barbarian) will come soon, not to worry. Just not this chapter.))

There is also something I've been meaning to tell you guys as well. Vietnamese words are written with accent marks which would be hard to explain in written words alone. Maybe someday I'll digress on it. But onto the more important things. My computer doesn't have the program to print the marks on the words so if you happen to encounter another word of the same spelling, I will add some footnotes explaining the difference that I couldn't put up on this fanfic. (Some song lyrics may appear with the accent marks...but that's because I've copied them from a website.)

So with a little twist on the Thistledown's blueberry-picking outing...here is chapter ten of Not-So-Journ!

* * *

**The Blueberry Festival: Part 1**

* * *

March XX: Saturday: Blueberry Festival!

Ahnnie had her finger pointed to that particular day on her calender, an expression of excitement spread across her face. She herself personally wrote the reminder (as of course, normal calender companies haven't added because the candy companies haven't made it up in the real world...yet), and every of the youngsters in the Quang house have been anticipating it all month long.

The Blueberry Festival was a holiday invented during World War II, during the great-grandparent's teenage years. The real reason for the celebration was unknown, especially since blueberries don't grow in Vietnam, but all those days humanoids and Quang magicians of all ages have had fun. The theme for decoration was easy to grab as a concept; blueberries! So during such a festival, even the forests in Sanctuary had some sort of blueberry ornament on them, or deep-blue streamers strewn across their branches.

"Blueberry!" Lillyn giggled as she whirled and twirled around the girl's head. "Come on, let's get ready for it!"

"I am, I am..." Ahnnie was busy adjusting the collar of her light-green Ao Dai (_ow yigh_) and the clasp of a cloak, also green, but much darker (there are no cloaks in traditional Vietnamese dress, but since this is a Forgotten Realms fanfic, I decided to add it for more...fantasy-ness).

Green was the color of their patron ancestor, as it was also the color of botanical life; in short, it was the symbolic shade for the entire Quang family. If enough had survived, the same would be so for many more cousins too...She shook that disturbing thought away and after making sure her bangs were brushed over to the right (as they always were), she decided that she looked nice enough and peeked through the door way to yell into the hallway: "Val! Kiri! You guys ready yet?"

"Hold on a sec." Valkyrie's voice came, calm and clear, from her room at the end of the hall. "But there seems to be a problem..."

"What problem could that be?"

Her cousin's head, framed by tamed black curls pulled into a mid-length ponytail at the back, poked out from the room with a worried expression planted on those striking features. "Kirin has a migraine."

"What?" Ahnnie couldn't even begin to comprehend that possibility. "Now? But she hasn't ever since...you know..."

"I know, but it's just happened." Valkyrie huffed a long, world-weary sigh that betrayed a worry going deeper than just stressing over a simple migraine; even if that's all that it was. "We can't let her out in those conditions...There's both light and sound, and with a migraine that turns a happy daylight festival into a kind of hell."

"We can't be absent either," Ahnnie said. "You and me, I mean."

"You and I."

"What you said. So, if Huynh's ready, I could tell him and we could come up with something..."

"Why not Grandpa?"

"He's already prepared! I bet he's already outside by now, and so are Ong Co and Ba Co (_great-grandfather and great-grandmother_)." Ahnnie bit her lip in some desperation. "Umm...what did you usually do, when this happened to her?"

"I stayed by her side, with medicine and water at the ready. What else do you think I could've done, leave her in my nasty uncle's hands?"

"I get the sarcasm! But there will be visitors too, and...you can't just stay here..."

Valkyrie sighed and disappeared back into the room to grab the traditional head-piece; when she came back, the ring-shaped piece was placed neatly on her head, with her ponytail adjusted to the left side and sticking out from the middle of the ring. Supported from a section of the ring, it made the wavy length of hair cascade down to her shoulder, like an ebon waterfall. "You're right. Leoht will be there but...you know who else will."

As the two teenage girls looked at each other, one name passed through their minds. _Drizzt._

Not that they didn't trust him; he was a good guy! But still...something just bothered them about the prospect...

After moments of what seemed like a staring contest, Ahnnie clapped her hands and her face brightened with a brilliant idea. "I know! How about you give Kiri the medicine first, then carry her down to the living room couch? There are all sorts of barriers there, remember?"

"As if there are none around our rooms."

"I get that, but if Kiri wakes up then she can exit to the backyard easily through the back door. She won't have to make a dizzying climb down the stairs where she might fall and hurt herself beyond repair, especially since she'll still be a tad sleepy."

Valkyrie considered that, then seeing her young cousin's logic, nodded with a slight smile. "For the first time in a long while, you've thought brilliantly."

"Hey. I already have Huynh at my back, and now you're against me too?"

The bespectacled girl gave a small chuckle. "Not entirely. You can go down first; I'll piggy-back her." She turned to leave, but then remembered something and stayed. "You're missing your head-"

"I always do that! I don't have enough soft hair like you to cushion my temples, so it hurts." Ahnnie hurried down the stairs with a "See ya!" and appeared in the living room even faster, surprising a very shocked big brother. Drizzt, sitting on the couch with Fuyumi, was not in the least alarmed. He heard her thumping down the stairs as though she were running from a legion of ghosts, and if Huynh hadn't, it might've been because the boy was too concerned with his looks.

Huynh stood in a Ao Dai fitted for men and boys; though the same deep green as hers, it was of a more silky texture, with elaborate gold-thread mandalas stitched into the fabric. He wore a slightly bigger head-ring and for once his hair was brushed neatly...the slick shine on it also denoted the use of hair gel.

"What was that for?" the youth demanded sourly. He fumbled with his cloak clasp and after many curses, succeeded and turned angrily on his little sister. Beside him, Namiq padded patiently in a ring around his feet, fur slick and combed as well. An ornament of ice-white diamond decorated her right ear. "Were you trying to raise the dead?"

Ahnnie frowned. "Well sor-_ry _Mr. Gaudy. I, for one, am excited for the celebrations instead of the coming of the guests. Or rather, one female guest."

Huynh blushed furiously. "I'm not excited about Izdihar at all..."

"Ha! You admitted it!" She pointed an accusing finger at her brother. "I didn't say _anything_ about her, and you spilled her name! You're a sorry excuse for a...a...secret-keeper!"

"Secret-keeper?" Her brother snorted. "That all you could come up with?"

"What else? It's accurate."

"Accurate my a-"

"Huynh was about to cuss!" Ahnnie tattle-taled to no one in particular.

The boy turned back to the floating pocket mirror, dejected and angry. "Whatever," he muttered, "but please don't tell Mallik about..."

"Your love for his big sis?"

"Don't put it like that. But still, don't tell him." The boy re-adjusted his head piece for the hundredth time. "You two may be good buddies at school but this is a holiday for magicians where we respect one another as fellow magic-users, and treat the other as fam-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatev." Ahnnie strode over to Drake, who was in Fuyumi's arms, and picked him up with a playful swing. "You ready Draky? Ready for your first Blueberry Festival?"

The baby cooed and spit and laughed. Ahnnie took that as a yes.

Drizzt, sitting quietly near the yuki-onna, couldn't understand a single word of what they were saying. After all, it was in English. He merely took a good look at the children's apparel; green, all of it; and then at the guardians. Fuyumi was wearing an elaborate kimono (the more long-sleeved, the fancier), Namiq had jewelry behind her ear, Eld was wearing silk, and only Aubaine was normal. Leoht...wait, where was the Lung Dragon?

It was then Valkyrie came down, her little sister asleep on her back. The little girl was changed back into her pajamas, because there was no way she could sleep in her fancy traditional dress, and her hair was matted with sweat. Leoht trailed sadly after, sniffing his ward from time to time. When the procession reached the bottom, Valkyrie took ten more steps then laid Kirin gently onto the comfy sofa.

Huynh stopped his mirror-gazing and turned in alarm to the sight of the suffering girl. "What happened?" he demanded.

"Migraine," Val explained.

Drizzt, separated from the girl by Fuyumi's snowy form, bent over to take a good look. He felt a pang of sadness as he saw the expression of pain etched on her usually cheery features. "What happened to her?" the drow asked, wanting to know the reason in a language he understood.

"Migraine," Val repeated in drow. "Given the situation and importance of this festival, I'll have to leave her here with Leoht..."

"And Drizzt?" Huynh asked, suspicious all over again.

"He can sit in the dining room," Ahnnie said.

Drizzt looked from Val to Huynh to Ahnnie. "I will be staying inside?"

"Oh..." Ahnnie turned to look a little pitiously at the drow. "Um...sorry, but...Grandpa said that you couldn't go out...because, well..." She rubbed her arm nervously. "Some people...elves, dwarves, vampires even...will...will..."

"I know," the drow said quietly.

"And I think the Harpells are coming?" Ahnnie continued to change the subject, with more than just a little guilt.

"The Harpells?" Valkyrie asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Huynh said. "Grandpa said so...last minute. Sometimes I wonder if he too is going senile."

"He's a busy man," Ahnnie objected. "Of course he forgets occasionally. You would too if you had a big family and a whole world to take care of."

"If there was ever such a thing as a grandaddy's girl, then you most certainly are one."

"Shut up!"

"SHHH!" Aubaine hissed. "You'll wake Kirin!"

That struck a chord somewhere in Valkyrie's memory, to a time when she was just a seven-year-old girl. Back to where a gentle woman cradled the newborn baby girl in her arms and told little Val to keep quiet. _You must always be quiet when Kirin is asleep, my little Valkyrie. Or she will wake, and cry even more..._ The girl looked away sharply, surprised that such a vague memory came back to mind at a time like this. _Once she starts crying again, she'll never want to go back to sleep. That might ruin her good dreams._

_Ok Mommy, I'll be quiet! _

_Good girl._

Ding-dong. The sudden mix-match of noise and voices in Val's head shook her back to reality, a reality where the guests from other magician families with whom they were friends waited patiently outside their door. "I'll get it," she offered, and ran for the door. When she opened it, it was the Fudo brothers smiling at her with cheery faces.

Yuusuke and Daichi Fudo. Magicians from Japan, they were descended from a long line of onmyoji, or exorcists. These two, however, were no exorcists themselves. Yuusuke dealt with enchanting ordinary every-day items (even his motorcycle), and Daichi nicknamed D used his magic to enhance the taste of his pastries and cakes, which he loved to bake and sell to people in his bakery. Yuusuke was eighteen and in college; D was twenty-four and past college. Both lived in a house somewhere down the block.

Yuusuke, his head a head with spiked hair highlighted yellow at some places, bobbed slightly in a small but quick bow, shaking his spikes. In that moment, Ahnnie and Huynh herded Drizzt into the dining room, before the drow could be discovered by the sharp eyes of the Japanese brothers.

"Madmoiselle," Yuusuke purred, holding Val's hand up and kissing it. "You are very beautiful today."

"Cut it out," Valkyrie said, trying to sound disgusted.

"But I would never kiss anyone but you!" Yuusuke protested.

"Whatever." Val turned to D. She noticed that he was holding a cake box. Unlike his brother, D wore his hair in a neat short bob with the bangs parted down the middle. He also liked to wear simple Tees and jeans and hated any garment that had things or words printed on them. "Blueberry?" she asked.

"Of course it's blueberry. I wouldn't come to the Blueberry Festival with a cherry cake, would I?"

"Course not." She smiled and slid back to let the two brothers in. They politely slid their shoes off and proceeded into the living room in their socks. There, they were met with happy greetings from Ahnnie and Huynh. The two were dismayed when they discovered that Kirin, the object of their usual piggy-backing and spoiling, had a migraine too bad for the Festival.

The bespectacled girl smiled and made to close the door; when she noticed some strange boy staring gloomily back at her. His eyes were cold and unnerving; for a moment, Valkyrie stood there gaping at him, full of awe and some terror. But then he disappeared into a shiny black Sedan, which sped off down the neighborhood. "She'll probably have to join the night festival," Val explained as she closed the door and joined the brothers. Perhaps that moody-looking boy was just nobody... "When she gets migraines like this...it takes that long for her to wake up."

"If I can be of any help..." Yuusuke trailed off, purposefully inching his hand towards hers.

"No need." Valkyrie politely hid her hand behind her back.

"Well." D cleared his throat and set the cake box down on the coffee table. "Shall we proceed into Sanctuary or...?"

"We must wait for the Rashids first!" Ahnnie protested.

The tell-tale _ding dong _came again, just on cue. It was Ahnnie who opened the door this time, and was greeted with the sight of six people; the Rashids.

The Rashids were magicians said to have been descended from Aladdin and his princess bride. They mostly dealt with djinns, or genies, and wish magic. Their story was unclear, but somehow along the way they were mixed with some Indian blood, and with that one slight mix, the family turned to Buddhism; the same exact religion the Fudo brothers and the Quang family worshipped under. It was very coincidential that these three families ended up as friends.

Mallik and Izdihar Rashid, decked out in elaborate Arabic robes and gold jewelry, greeted their school friends with a flourish of jingling metal.

"Hey Ahnnie," Mallik said. "What's up?"

"Ahem." Ahmad Rashid, Mallik and Izdihar's father, cleared his throat most unhappily.

"I mean..." Mallik did his greeting over again. "Greetings, Quang family of magicians. Our family is here to join you in the festivities."

"Most pleased to meet you," Izdihar said beside her young brother. Her long, straight black hair framed her tanned face; it was a face of broad cheekbones, of no gentle delicacy but a beautiful bravery. Such a face, and heart, made Huynh blush.

The other Rashids, Fatima (the mother), Akbar (grandfather, Ahmad's father), Bahiya (grandmother, Ahmad's mother), and Banan (the auntie, Ahmad's sister) nodded with approval.

Mallik's dark eyes looked up at Ahnnie's with strain, secretly telling her that this politeness was not his thing.

Ahnnie looked back comfortingly, assuring him that they'll have enough time for their usual talk soon enough.

"Permission to enter?" Ahmad asked after a while.

"Of course!" Ahnnie stepped back and let the Arabians idle past. After she closed the door, the first thing she saw was grandma Bahiya holding up Drake and coddling him as though he were her own. Next was her noticing that Mallik wore a headwrap; quite unusual for the rough teen.

Lillyn fluttered in beside her to climb up her hair and thus onto her head. "When are we gonna get out? I want to see the festival!"

"The Harpells have to come first," Ahnnie said with a bit of a sigh. "I kind of wonder how Grandpa was able to contact them...or vice versa." When the fairy shrugged, the girl waved the thought away and came up to Mallik, who was having a bit of a conversation in Arabic with his sister. When the two saw her approach, they welcomed her warmly into their circle.

"I can't wait to get out there," Mallik said happily.

"Me neither! But you know, the Harpells have to come first."

"The Harpells?" Izdihar's eyes went wide. "You mean..._the _Harpell magician family?"

"What else?" said Ahnnie. "I hear that they're kind of clumsy, though..."

"It's basic knowledge," Mallik said with a wave of his hand. The golden jewelry jingled again.

"Rule number one in ninja training," Ahnnie decided to say. "Never show off any metals you have with you."

"This is decor," Mallik explained. "Of course, I'll have it off when we spar." His eyes glinted mischeivously.

"Oh no you don't," Izdihar cut in, crossing her arms angrily. "Remember the last time you two wildcats fought each other? You almost summoned the Grand Djinn! You sneaky little boy, you can make an excellent thief but never a patient summoner. No sparring for you."

"Without magic?" Mallik pleaded.

"Without magic should be fine," Ahnnie added, hoping Izdihar would allow it in some way.

"Even without magic." The Arabic girl huffed and turned so that her back faced the two of them. "And don't think that you, Phuong Anh, have nothing to be guilty of. You almost burned down an orchard, had it not been for Huynh's quick thinking and control over...salt water."

Huynh stood tall and proud at her words, even if she put a disgusted emphasis on "salt water".

"No sparring for us this festival," Ahnnie said apologetically. "But then I'll have to do it with Huynh..."

"What! Again?" Mallik looked horrified. "You two never win or lose at all! Your fights always end in a draw...why should you?"

"Is it getting boring to watch?" Ahnnie asked worriedly.

"Not really, but...when is a winner ever going to come out, you know?"

"I see..." Ahnnie pondered that for a while, then turned back to what she really wanted to ask her friend. "I forgot to ask. Mallik, today you're...hiding your hair."

He turned away disdainfully and with sadly slouched shoulders, heaved a heavy sigh. "Yeah, well..."

"Would you like to know?" Izdihar asked.

"Did he go bald?" Ahnnie asked her, wide-eyed.

"No, of course not." The Arabic girl gestured at her brother's headwrap with a flourish of her bangled hands. "But, well, he did something yesterday night that shocked the whole family into...punishing him like this. I shall now show you."

The headwrap slid off and to Ahnnie's shock Mallik's usual shoulder-length dark black hair was _blonde! _From top to bottom!

_"You dyed it_?" Her voice quavered on the verge of shouting. "Why would you do that? I thought you hate using chemicals!"

"Correction: He messed with a spell." Mallik's indignant sister looked somewhat proud of herself for knowing such things, but if a stranger looked at her face at that moment, the expression would have been mistaken for a look of contempt. "Irreversible until Father knows what to do."

"I kind of like it this way," Mallik protested.

Izdihar frowned. "You think it's cool to be Arabic and blonde at the same time? Haven't you ever heard a 'dumb blonde' joke?"

"Blondes aren't all dumb!" He spun around. "You can go ahead and tell that stuff to Hitler! But if I want it blonde, _then I will keep it blonde_!"

Ahnnie looked around for the presence of stern Ahmad and his wife, Fatima. But they were nowhere to be seen; perhaps they already joined Grandpa outside. "Your grandparents and your aunt will hear you if you speak too loud."

"They don't really bother." Turning back to his sister, Mallik continued, "If you don't like it, then I will add red highlights to prove my point."

Izdihar made a disgusted snort and flicked the headwrap back onto her brother's head. "Oh please. Don't bother me with that stupid teenager talk."

"Well..." Ahnnie twiddled her thumbs nervously, hoping what she said next wouldn't anger Izdihar. "Mallik...I like it too. If that's your new style, then it looks cool." As she continued, her face lit up and her confidence built with every new word. Parroting Drizzt's suitors, she said: "It contrasts perfectly with your dark skin."

"Ugh." Izdihar moved away to talk a bit with Valkyrie, who was being flirted with by Yuusuke. As usual.

"Thanks," Mallik smiled. "That's the first word of appreciation I've ever heard about my new do."

"Well, those don't come cheap."

"Yeah." The boy heaved another sigh; this one, a sigh of relief. "Anyways, where are the Harpells? They sure are keeping us tense and excited in this house..."

"I know." Ahnnie looked at the wall clock. "We should've been out the moment you came..." Her eyes narrowed angrily at her next thought. "What if they were just pranking us when they said they would come?"

"I wouldn't say that."

"Why not? Rich people are like that."

"Not all."

"How do _you _know?"

Mallik had to give out a defeated chuckle. "Ok, so I don't know. But knowing our Jap-Arab-Viet family circle and it's reputation, the Harpells would be hard pressed to explain their behavior later at the next Wizard's Meet."

"They could be showing us some defiance..."

"Actually they seem like a gentle, honest, and down-to-earth family to me," Mallik admitted. "I haven't really met them, but Izdihar did. She said they were nice and wouldn't dare to insult or hurt anybody. Oh, and have you ever been to their restaurant-slash-bar, the Fuzzy Quarterstaff? It's got the best food ever. You should try their newest cake, the-"

"Never been," was her final answer. "And I think a restaurant-slash-bar is more of a tavern."

"Excuse me then for my poor vocabulary."

"Uh...Excused."

Valkyrie quickly interrupted them by tapping their shoulders. "Fuyumi just told me she felt some more cars coming in our direction. You better go check."

"Must be the Harpells," Mallik suggested.

"Must be," Ahnnie agreed, then went to look through the window. Circling the cul-de-sac were three...no..._four _bright-colored limos that silently parked once they found their places. The doors swung open and about ten or twelve fancily-dressed people stepped out from the elongated cars. Ahnnie hoped with all her heart that the concealment spell placed on the cul-de-sac before the guests arrived made these people invisible to the neighbors, especially Mr. McGristle. If he ever saw a bunch of people dressed as though for the red carpet heading into their house...

Ding dong.

Ahnnie slid away from the window, her face wide with amazement. "They brought so many," she breathed.

"The whole clan?" Valkyrie asked, hoping against the odds.

"No...but still..." Ahnnie looked uncertainly in the direction of the front door. "They might stampede the place. And Kirin..."

"I'll move her to the den," Mallik volunteered. At Valkyrie's approving nod, the boy heaved the little girl into his arms in a princess lift then left for the said destination. While he was there Izdihar moved to open the door, Huynh right behind her. The smiling face of the celebrity wizard Harkle Harpell greeted their eyes; so did his bright blue tuxedo. Taking second glances Huynh and Izdihar realized that the entire Harpell group wore blue...and only blue...

"Someone's sure excited about the blueberries," Izdihar remarked.

"Of course we are!" Harkle exclaimed, throwing his arms wide in greeting. "Allow me to introduce myself! I am Harkle Harpell of the Ivy Mansion, and-" He stopped when he saw Izdihar. "Ishtar, is that you? Long time no see!"

"_Izdihar_," she corrected irritably. "And no need to continue! We know who you are." She looked back and saw that Yuusuke, D, Mallik, Bahiya, Banan, and Ahnnie had their eyes all trained on the Harpells. "You are also attracting some attention to yourselves. As well known as you are, though, it is not in my power to let you inside." Izdihar stepped back into the space of the living room, leaving Huynh to face the Harpells on his own.

Not that he was the least bit frightened. "You can step in," Huynh told them. "Grandpa said you were coming anyway..."

Before he could finish, the Harpells all flooded into the house, muttering softly in excited tones. They looked at the living room space curiously, as though wondering how anyone could live in such a small space compared to their humongous mansion. The way they came in reminded the others in the room of bright blue ocean waves. With some wearing dazzling jewels in their dresses, it looked as though this wave sparkled in the sun.

Mallik came back soon after and almost jumped when he saw the number of people in the room. "It sure is getting crowded," he remarked to Ahnnie as he idled past them.

"We'd better get outside," she agreed. "Now." So saying, she sent a secret look at her brother and a brief nod in the direction of the dining room.

_Make sure Drizzt doesn't get discovered!_

Huynh nodded a but sullenly and moved off.

"Oh it's very nice to meet you," Harkle interrupted Ahnnie's thoughts by shaking her hand fervently. "Phuong Anh, I presume?"

"You got me," she said, withdrawing her hand after a while.

"And I'm Valkyrie," Val introduced herself. "May we know who all these people are?"

Harkle straightened and adjusted his glasses. "Why of course! But I can't possibly explain all of them here right now! There's a festival to catch."

"Right," Ahnnie said, trying to smile.

"But I will introduce you to some." The Harpell turned and beckoned forth a serious looking old man with peppery hair. "This is Malchor Harpell! He-"

"-lives in a tower that can disappear and is not as clumsy as the rest of you?" Huynh finished when he returned.

Harkle, instead of taking offense, laughed heartily. "Yes, truly he is! I do wish I had his competency."

"Hn," Malchor grunted, then moved away.

"This is my fiancee," Harkle continued, and as if on cue, a tall, blonde woman moved next to him. She was not very beautiful; plain, really; but something in her gray eyes bespoke danger and hostility.

"I'm Sydney," the woman said, "apprentice of Dendybar the Mottled, of the Hosttower of the Arcane." Her hand was outstretched for a shake, her tight lips curved in a smile.

The three Quang teenagers looked at it with some contemplation. Something was off with this lady; and it wasn't just her eyes.

Sydney withdrew her hand in some dejection when no one moved to shake it. "Well? Cat all got your tongues?"

"You said you were apprenticed," Valkyrie said, "to a wizard of the Hosttower?"

"That's right. And?"

"It's nothing." Izdihar moved in when she noticed the grim looks in their eyes. "They have no friendly relations with such people...mostly because they have no relations at all with anyone in the Hosttower. Take it from someone who knows them well."

"There was no need to just stand and stare, though," Sydney put in indignantly. Everyone within earshot of her could detect the masked tone of anger. To her Harkle however, it sounded as though she were hurt instead of infuriated.

"Oh come now, my dear," Harkle said. "They are just teenagers. And you know teens these days."

Huynh bristled somewhat at that comment; mostly because it was given in defense to a wizard of the Hosttower. "To be rid of any misunderstandings, we admit our rudeness and thus apologize. We would also appreciate it if you don't compare us to irresponsible, incompetent, and ungrateful brats."

"Well..." Harkle seemed taken aback. "Apology accepted...of course, you'd have to accept mine as well for comparing you so..."

Ahnnie waved the matter away with a smile. "Er, yeah, what my brother said. Usually he's such a dunce, and it's miracles like these that make him sound so professional. Anyways, the other Harpells?"

"Ah, yes." Harkle pushed forth two teenagers, both the same height and sporting neatly combed orange hair; one boy, one girl. "The youngest of the gathering here! They are Simon and Mermaia (_mer-may-uh_) Harpell."

"Hello," Simon said shyly.

"Nice to meet you," Mermaia curtseyed.

"Xin chao (hello; _sin chow_)," Ahnnie and Huynh said in unison. It took Valkyrie a few minutes of scrutiny before she said the same.

"Aasalaamu Aleikum (may peace be with you)," Izdihar said with a nod.

"Ooh! I know this one!" Harkle said proudly. "Wa-Aleikum Assalaam (And with you be peace; something like that)."

"Glad you know it," the Arabic girl said disinterestedly. "To the festival?"

"To the festival!" Harkle said proudly, now arm-in-arm with Sydney.

* * *

After the numerous party left the house for the back yard, Drizzt dared to peek out of the dining room. When he found out that he was truly alone, he shuffled slowly out to the living room area, where he saw Leoht tending to Kirin on the couch with breaths of soft Lung-flame. In the confusion of the group, Val had the young girl carried back out to the security of the living room and its barriers. Drizzt was reminded painfully of those invisible walls when he tried to get close and bumped his head; hard.

Leoht spun around at the sudden noise and seeing Drizzt, bared his teeth at the drow. He snarled for several seconds before turning back to cleanse Kirin again in the healing flames of his breath.

"I mean no harm," Drizzt promised, but he might as well have tried to talk reason with a rabid animal. He received another snarl, plus one throaty growl, and with a huff decided to content himself with a stool perched conveniently near the counter of the kitchen. As he sat, he silently watched the little girl slept, her face illuminated occasionally by her guardian's colorful fires. How innocent she seemed then, so soft and so vulnerable. A slight expression of pain and struggle crossed her features, the only thing denoting the headache she was suffering. That only made her seem more vulnerable.

_Was there a time when I was that small? _Drizzt wondered. Of course there was, but...he couldn't imagine it. Especially because he wasn't lucky enough to have a family as loving as the one Kirin had. _What if I could have lived like her? _

The drow snapped straight at that thought. Indeed...what if he had a childhood just as happy as Kirin's? That way, Zaknafein wouldn't have died. Briza, Vierna, and Maya would have brought him up with sisterly joy and love. Nalfein wouldn't have been killed by Dinin either; they could have been friends. And Matron Malice, well, wouldn't be 'Matron'. She'd be...'Mother'. And Drizzt? He wouldn't have to face the abuse and torture his years living underground showed him. Even if the family was poor, he would've enjoyed every minute of it.

What a wonderful picture his mind's eye had painted. But there were many holes in it, places were no other color was permitted but a dark shadow. And he knew it.

* * *

"Happy Blueberry Fest!"

"You too!"

Such were the greetings exchanged to every citizen in Sanctuary that day. As the four magician families strode in, the greetings were increased hundredfold and many moved over to shake hands or interact.

The families had already passed through the dorms area, which was empty anyway, and entered into a large town square where a tall fountain spouted blueberry juice. There was no need for formalities that day; everyone was equal now in these times of merrymaking, and everyone was welcome. Except maybe Mr. McGristle, but who would've wanted to invite him?

"What should we do first?" Ahnnie wondered to her big brother.

She was surprised as a green hand touched her shoulder most chillingly. "How about we participate in a race?"

The girl spun around and faced Eld. "Oh, Eld, it was just you..."

"Just me?" The imp sounded offended. "Just me! My word, I might as well be a stranger to you, for all you care."

"I didn't mean..."

"Just kidding." He smiled. "Want to race?"

"Not now." Her eyes caught Huynh's. "Wanna spar?"

"You're on."

"Uh-uh!" Eld separated the both of them from staring each other down. "No fighting right away! We should do something interactive first. Meet some friends, make new ones, et cetera..." His green eyes stopped at the sight of the blue-clad Harpells. "Who are they?"

"The Harpell family," Huynh said. "Special guests." He huffed and wandered off elsewhere, Namiq padding softly at his heels.

"Hey!" Ahnnie rushed after him, her green cloak billowing after her. She hastily grabbed at her brother's shoulder. "Don't you want to spar with me?"

"I want to check out Val's zither performance first," he said, and when Ahnnie and Lillyn saw Izdihar standing at a platform near Valkyrie and her instrument, both of them saw why.

"Suit yourself," Lillyn huffed and fluttered off to land on a particular elf's blonde head.

"Elwing!" Eld and Ahnnie exclaimed in unison.

"Hello," the elf girl said pleasantly. Her deep blue eyes caught the sunlight and sparkled like an exotic gem. It was hard to think that such a peaceful person could have faced something as horrible as a drow raid many decades before. Much more surprising was the fact that she survived it when all the elves in her clan had died from it; and that, according to her, the drow that held her life in his hands chose not to take it that day. Not many would call it being 'saved' when they knew how vicious drow elves were, so 'spared' was the commonly used term for it. Sometimes, 'forsaken'; the lucky kind.

Seeing the beautifully innocent face glowing with a secretly sad smile in the sun and thinking of what it went through, Ahnnie couldn't help but wonder if, that day (or night), Drizzt had been there. Then her face fell when it led to another possibility..._He might have helped kill the others._

Elwing pulled her out of those chilled thoughts by offering to have an archery match, with Kellindil present.

"Master Kellindil is here?" Ahnnie asked excitedly.

"Of course," the elf-girl replied cheerily. "He wouldn't miss this for nothing, you know. But right now he is doing some blueberry wine tasting. So is Pharaoh."

"Let's go see them," Ahnnie suggested. Catching sight of Mallik at the fountain, she gestured for him to come. "Come on Mallik, let's go!"

Mallik walked forward a bit uncertainly and scratched the back of his head; which was no use anyways because of the turban covering it. "Where?"

"The wine tasting booths!"

"Are you crazy?" He yelled, but there was no time to say anything else when she pulled him alongside Eld, Lillyn, and Elwing to the alcoholic destination. They charged like wild bulls and scattered many crowds of Dwarves, Halflings (Hobbits), Kender, and Gnomes (_Why are we only charging at little people? _Mallik wondered).

When they reached the wine-tasting booth, they saw Kellindil the Archer and a Pharaoh bedecked in Egyptian grandeur sipping at some samples of blueberry wine, whiskey, moonshine, and even vodka. The strange multi-racial group of two humans, one elf, one imp, and one fairy stared at the archer and Pharaoh as if they had never seen them before, because the two of them were mostly heading over to the vodka section.

Kellindil appeared to have just noticed them when he downed what seemed like his third shot of the Russian drink. "Oh, there you are, kids..."

"I'm not a kid," Eld replied in English; there was no need to speak to Kellindil in Elven because the learned elf knew many languages.

"There you are, my loyal subjects!" The Pharaoh roared happily, even though the day he unwittingly turned himself into a kind of djinn was on his seventeenth birthday.

"We're not you're subjects!" Lillyn retorted. "One, because we're not Egyptian..."

"Explain him then," the Pharaoh pointed out Mallik stubbornly.

But Lillyn ignored that. Everyone knew Mallik wasn't Egyptian anyways. "...and two, because this is a country where no one's bound to anybody!"

"Except maybe the President," Mallik added ponderously. "But him being the way he is, I feel a bit repulsed to be bound to him."

"The one before him was even worse," Eld agreed.

"Enough politic talk," Kellindil stated impatiently. "But if I may put in one point...no one's bound to anybody, not even by law, because what is law in the face of morals and true freedom of spirit?" He hiccuped a bit uncertainly afterward, and the others could swear that his face was turning reddish-pink.

"Excellent speech," Elwing applauded, "but can we go do something that doesn't involve liquor?"

The Pharaoh, ignoring her plea, pat Kellindil heartily on the back. "My good friend, there is no way your stomach can hold as much liquor as mine! See, I drank even more than you and I'm not the least bit red!"

"Atum-Ra...you..." Kellindil stumbled slightly, and was caught by Ahnnie, who, much shorter than him, held him with quivering arms until it seemed that they would burst.

"That's _Pharaoh _Atum-Ra to you," the Egyptian replied indignantly.

* * *

**Intermission; Please Look Forward to Part Two**

* * *

**Sorry folks, but Part 1 has to end at a part that makes no sense at all. No dramatic effect...**

**Anways, the reason is because this chapter became too lengthy when I thought of it, and I have other stuff to do. I don't want to leave this chapter unpublished and thus wear down my good conscience so I will publish this much of it for now. But Part 2 will have more!**


	11. The Blueberry Festival: Part 2

Sorry I came back so late. I was busy, you know? Summer vacation's coming up and all, so yeah. Lucky for you all though, because a little trip I took to the lake has given me new fanfic ideas! Hooray!

OhShirleyUJest- I got the 182 number from a friend of mine, who is I guess another Drizzt fan. But she must be a little weird in the head to have given me that twisted info. Thanks for your and Dracarot's help!

Now onto the story.

* * *

**The Blueberry Festival: Part 2**

* * *

"You're not Pharaoh of anyone now," Lillyn teased Atum-Ra, then fluttered over around Kellindil's head and pointed ears. "This is bad, you can't have an archery match now! He's drunk!"

"No I'm not," Kellindil protested with a hiccup.

"He's not very," Eld appraised, "But in this condition he'd end up missing the target...or worse, hitting others."

Mallik huffed and crossed his arms, making a lot of jingly noise. "And what, we can't do it ourselves?"

"I'm nearsighted in one eye," Ahnnie explained.

"Why Kellindil decided to teach you anyways is beyond me," Eld teased.

"I'm too small, and Eld's too clumsy," Lillyn said with utmost happiness.

"Besides, we planned for Elwing to compete," Ahnnie finished. "She and Kellindil make the best archery pair you'll ever see...But we can always grab another elf for that...unless, Mallik, are you any good with a bow and some arrows?"

"I've only ever done it against my grandfather," the Arabic boy said, "so I'm willing to challenge anyone else! Bring it on!"

"How about me?" Elwing asked.

"Deal!"

Now reassured with some tense and action-packed entertainment, Ahnnie, Eld, Lillyn and the Pharaoh followed Mallik and Elwing to the archery grounds. Kellindil stayed behind to steady himself until he realized what was going on and ran after the disappearing youths. It didn't take long for him to catch up, not with his fast and graceful strides, but when he got there it was to see Elwing and Mallik grab some equipment behind a line of several other archers, mostly consisted of Elves and maybe a few Kender.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kellindil asked Ahnnie accusingly.

"You were, uh, drunk," she told him. "But I did tell you."

"I do this every year with Elwing," the Elven archer continued to protest. "How could I have let myself miss it? Darn. But that vodka sure was good-"

"Not now!" Eld waved at him impatiently. "Ugh, Elves are so troublesome when they don't get what they want. Pay attention, 'cause Elwing and Mallik are coming up after these four..."

"I remember them from last year," Ahnnie remarked about the four Elves Eld pointed to. "And from the one before that, and the one before that...wow, they sure are some sharp-shooters, huh?"

"Either that, or they're just persistent," Eld said.

Several of the pointy-eared Elves somehow heard that from such a distance and gave Eld "the look".

But the imp was stubborn, and even when he saw their glares, he pretended like nothing had happened.

"You're so impolite," Ahnnie remarked to him.

"Whatever! Elves are just so...so arrogant and prideful! Just because they're slender and have pointy ears they think they're king'o'the world, but I'll bet they can't even lift a dwarf's hammer. Come on, who'd want to have a pointy face in the first place?"

Ahnnie, mortified, clamped a hand over the protesting imp's mouth. He did draw some eyes in their direction, but it wasn't any Elves; they were too busy focusing on the archery match anyways. Ahnnie didn't know if any sharp-eared person had really heard any of it, and she hoped they hadn't.

"How rude," Atum-Ra commented. "If a pottymouth like you were to serve in my court...rest assured that your head will be paraded through the streets."

"Rest assured?" Eld said, but it was muffled through his ward's hand...which he spit into.

"Eeew!" Ahnnie shrieked, and ran off to find some place to wash it off.

Eld, meanwhile, whas trying to stifle a bout of laughter.

"Look now!" Lillyn yelled heartily, interrupting them, and pointed towards the last two Elven archers, who had just scored a tie. The ones before them had placed 4-3. "Elwing and Mallik are coming up!"

The audience was captured by the appearance of the next contestants, a fair, slender elf and a dark, yet decorative, human boy. The two began notching the arrows they had chosen from the beginning, their eyes stern and intent, their mouths a thin, taut line. Many halflings were practically fidgeting at the sight of Mallik; so much gold!; but they were soon quieted at the prospect of seeing a winner come out. And which one would it be?

"There aren't many humans competing in this, huh?" Eld remarked.

"Mallik is the only human doing this," Atum-Ra said with finalty.

"If only Ahnnie and Eld weren't such klutzs," Lillyn said mournfully.

Her words were lost on Eld though, who began focusing with all his might on the match. He even didn't notice Ahnnie coming back, and she wasn't using her Stealth. Once everyone settled, their eyes were locked on the two competitors, just as it had been for the other four, and maybe even more. But the most important thing was...

...they were drawing back their bowstrings.

* * *

Two hours and thirty minutes later, Drizzt still sat on his perch atop the stool, watching the young girl doze away in the still-bright morning. His eyes watered even as he stared and he continually had to wipe at them. God, the light hurt him so much! Especially near the area where his swords were hung as trophies. The light usually reflected off of the blades which, in turn, got at his sensitive lavender orbs every moment he came near.

So if the Quang family was at all suspicious as to why he hadn't tried to get them yet...then they should see him now to know why.

But for Leoht, the drow's tears of pain were interpreted as some show of sadness. The Lung, after giving Kirin another bath of healing fires, continually stared at Drizzt in amazement and wonder. After all, he thought that drow were vicious, canniving, manipulative, blood-thirsty, vengeful, and evil creatures. He never thought he'd see one cry.

_What is he looking at? _Drizzt wondered when he caught Leoht staring at him through his tears.

**You are crying**, said a voice ringing in the drow's head.

Once again, Drizzt was unexpectedly caught by surprise. At first, he thought he was hearing some hidden person, but then noticed the Lung's intent look for what it was. _Telepathy! _He shook his white mane, wondering how the dragon had broken through his mental barrier as easy as an illithid...the thought made him queasy. Other than that, Drizzt could not understand at all the language the dragon was using, so all he could do was stare back in equal measure.

**So even drow can be sad?** came the voice again.

But also again, Drizzt could not understand a single word. He wiped at his painful eyes and decided to do them some justice by covering them with his hands.

**I should've eaten you! **

The sharp tone made the dark elf wince, and Leoht finally turned away to continue tending to Kirin's headache. Everything became as it was before, and the only noise emnated from the Festival outside. Drizzt began wishing that he, too, could join in the fun...but what fun would that be if he scared everyone off like a monster?

His thoughts were interrupted by a series of rapid knocks banging against the front door.

* * *

"Man, did I lose!" Mallik wailed mournfully, rubbing his aching right arm with some special blueberry ointment.

"Elwing doesn't compete against Kellindil for nothing, you know," Ahnnie remarked as they walked, side-by-side, accompanied by their party over to where Valkyrie and Huynh were supposed to be doing some kind of duet.

Elwing blushed at the comment and protested, "It was all because Kellindil taught me in the first place. Otherwise, I..."

Kellindil, now sober, seemed mighty pleased that Mallik lost to her. "Thanks, young human, for that change of routine. I enjoyed watching the both of you compete so very much..."

"Don't mock him," Ahnnie pouted defensively.

"I could've done better!" Atum-Ra insisted.

"You've never picked up a bow in your life," Lillyn retorted playfully. "Only a sword...and with that you accidentally erased your name from the King's List. How rash! How clumsy!"

"Why didn't you ask the scribes to rewrite it?" Mallik wondered aloud to the Pharaoh.

"Because I took it off from the original stone," Atum-Ra explained.

"We could have been proud, you know," Ahnnie said, "if your name remained there. Then Mallik and I would've learned about you from history class, and then we could say, 'hey, I know that guy in real life! And you people don't! Suckers!' "

Atum-Ra laughed a loud laugh, but uncharacteristically, it was a sad one. All of them noticed it, but they chose to ignore it. After all, the Pharaoh was not the type to share thoughts he wanted private.

"Let's try to pick up the pace here," Lillyn insisted.

They all obediently listened to her and now began jogging through the crowds of humanoids, mythical creatures, Harpells, and animals. From somewhere in the distance, the roar of a dinosaur sounded (Sanctuary offers protection for them, too), but that was nowhere near as relaxing and harmonious as Valkyrie's clear zither melody. Huynh's flute accompanied it as well for this particularly sad song. It was a piece Ahnnie was familiar with, but a few Harpells that gathered to hear it obviously did not and they stood as if bound to the spot.

Lucky for them, the group had arrived right on the introduction of the song. The beautiful flowing notes of the zither and the mournful flight of the flute opened up to lyrics that Valkyrie herself began singing:

[Thơ (Poem); Opening Poem of the song Hàn Mạc Tử *]

_Ai mua trăng_, (Who wants to buy the moon?)

_tôi bán trăng cho_. (I will sell it to you.)

_Trăng nằm yên (_The moon lies still)

_trên cành liễu đợi chờ_ (upon a willow branch, waiting.)

_Ai mua trăng, tôi bán trăng cho_. (Who wants to buy the moon? I will sell it to you.)

_Chẳng bán tình duyên_ (But not my love,)

_ước hẹn hò _(which I have promised to another.)

**Song**

_Đường lên dốc đá_ (On the path over the rocks)

_nửa đêm trăng tà nhớ câu chuyện xưa (_the midnight moon sets, remembering the past)

_Lầu ông Hoàng đó _(At the Prince Pavilion)

_thuở nào trăng Hàn Mặc Tử đã qua _(where Hàn Mặc Tử's moon once passed by.)

_Ánh trăng treo nghiêng nghiêng, bờ cát dài thêm hoang vắng _(The moonlight slants; the seashore grows emptier.)

_Tiếng chim kêu đau thương, như nức nở dưới trời sương _(The bird sings out painfully, as though it will break beneath the fog)

_Lá rơi rơi đâu đây sao cứ ngỡ bước chân người tìm về những đêm buồn _(Leaves fall, fall everywhere, but where will they go?)

_Đường lên dốc đá _(On the path over the rocks)

_nhớ xưa hai người đã một lần đến_ ('twas here the couple once met.)

_Tình yêu vừa chớm _(But just as their love grew)

_xót thương cho chàng cuộc sống phế nhân_ (his body became useless.)

_Tiếc thay cho thân trai một, nửa đời chưa qua hết_ (He is filled with regrets, for a life not even half-over.)

_Trách thay cho tơ duyên chưa thắm nồng đã vội tan_ (He blames fate for ending his love when it hadn't yet warmed)

_Hồn ngất ngây điên cuồng cho trời đất cũng tang thương, mà khổ đau niềm riêng._ (His soul spun madly...the sky and earth pitied him, but his sorrow was his own.)

_Hàn Mạc Tử xuôi về quê cũ, dấu thân nơi nhà hoang_ (Hàn Mạc Tử then returned to his hometown and hid himself in a decrepit house)

"_Mộng Cầm hỡi thôi đừng thương tiếc, tủi cho nhau mà thôi _("Oh Mộng Cầm, do not fill yourself with regret. It will only make the both of us sad.)

_Tình đã lỡ xin một câu hứa, kiếp sau ta trọn đôi _(We could not be together this life, but promise me that in the next we will)

_Còn gì nữa thân tàn xin để một mình mình đơn côị_" (There is nothing left of this dying body...Please let me be, let me be alone.")

_Tìm vào cô đơn đất Quy Nhơn gầy đón chân chàng đến _(While he searches through his loneliness, the soil of Quy Nhon greets his footsteps)

_Người xưa nào bíêt, chốn xưa ngập đường pháo cưới kết hoa_ (The people from before still remember the day the streets were littered with wedding firecrackers)

_Chốn hoang liêu tiêu sơ Hàn âm thầm ôm trăng vỡ_ (In that old house Han listened to the shattering moon)

_Khóc thương thân bơ vơ, cho đến một buôỉ chiều kia_ (whilst pitying himself. But then came one night)

_Trơì đất như điên cuồng khi hồn phách vút lên cao_ (when the earth spun with a departing soul, soaring on high)

_Mặc Tử nay còn đâu ? _(Where is Mặc Tử now?)

_Trăng vàng ngọc, trăng ân tình chưa phỉ _(Oh the golden pearl moon, the moon of a love that could not be fulfilled)

_Ta nhìn trăng,_ (I look up at the it,)

_khôn xiết ngậm ngùi trăng _(with my compassion wounding tight around its glow.)

(**A/N: Hàn Mạc Tử, 1912-1940, was a Vietnamese poet who contracted leprosy at the age of 28 and died unfortunately young. Though he was poor, he soon grew famous with the help of Phan Boi Chau **(f-AH-ng boy ch-oh-w)**, a revolutionary activist. His poems are mostly about women, fictionous and real, and he was well-known as a love poet. **

**This song describing his failed love was written by Tran Thien Thanh **(tr-UNG tee-UNG t-ah-n) **using one of his poems as the opening**. **Mộng Cầm was a lover he probably had intended to marry, but because of his poor social status and disease, her parents wouldn't hear of it and forced her to marry a richer man. Thus he died alone in 1940, but he wasn't really hiding in an old deserted house. ****He had many different pennames, the last one being Hàn Mạc Tử, which he is more well known by. I am not sure what the first two parts of his name mean, but Tử is a word that can either mean "pupil"...or "death".**

**Want to hear the song? Visit my profile and click on the link associated with Not-So-Journ chapter 11.)**

"That was awesome Val!" Ahnnie cheered.

Elwing wiped a tear out of her eye. "Hàn Mạc Tử's story always makes me cry."

Huynh grunted acknowledgingly at the top of the platform, put away his flute, and, swinging himself over, jumped down to the ground. Valkyrie simply waved at them and moved onto another song with a few other Elves joining in. While they performed, Huynh placed his hands on his hips and stared knowingly at his little sister.

"Wanna fight?" he asked simply.

"Always," she replied.

"Always?" Simon Harpell came into view. "That sounds so violent! Why do you have to fight anyways?"

"They don't really mean to kill each other," Elwing said, her words translated for her by Lillyn. "It's just a sport. It happens every year...with no winner."

Izdihar's face fell sternly and her hand gripped Huynh's shoulder like a vice. "If you remember what happened with her and Mallik, then don't overdo it. God, you fighter mages can get so barbaric..."

"I'm not barbaric!" Ahnnie protested.

"We shall see," Huynh smiled.

Eld heaved a weary sigh. "Not this again..."

"Good!" Atum-Ra exclaimed. "That gives me the advantage of lunch...and a show!" The Egyptian then caught sight of a reluctant Harpell from the corner of his eye. With a joyfully widening smile and an encouraging pat on the back, he said, "Come on, Simon, it's nothing like the Roman coliseum!"

Simon, though he was nervously wringing his fingers, curiously followed the two teenagers to see what they would be up to.

* * *

Drizzt slid off the stool slowly, and with a kitchen knife he quickly grabbed, stepped slowly into the hallway where he head the knock. Since living with these people, he knew that the sound meant someone was coming to visit...but all the visitors they were supposed to have were already in their places and he didn't think that there would be any more expected. So who was it then, begging for entry?

"I'll get it."

Kirin's young and sleepy voice jolted Drizzt so badly he almost dropped the knife. The quick drow whirled around and saw the little girl getting up from the couch with a hand pushing Leoht's muzzle away. She apparently didn't want or need the healing fires anymore and with a yawn, padded barefeet past Drizzt into the front hallway.

"We weren't expecting burglars," she said teasingly, referring to Drizzt's rushed choice of weapon. But of course, he didn't understand, and he held the knife upright and ready while hiding himself strategically behind the wall.

Leoht rushed over to her protectively and even acted as her footstool as she tried to get her eye level with the peephole. When she did, her eyebrows bunched in an expression of confusion. She looked down to Leoht, as if the dragon knew who stood out there.

Drizzt sensed the elongated stillness and peeked his head out to see what was wrong.

Kirin answered his look with a slight nod, and cleared her throat softly. "Wh-Who's there?"

"Kirin, is that you?" a gruff male voice asked from outside in English.

"Uh-huh..."

"Daddy's here to pick you up!"

* * *

Huynh and Ahnnie faced each other in the middle of a roped arena, which was suspended midair by magical currents running up from the ground. Their cloaks were removed to give them a more comfortable range, and as they waited for the ring of the bell, their hands flexed in anticipation. The rules were simple; don't kill or seriously hurt each other.

Elwing stepped into the middle of the circle and, hands on her hips, went through the customary briefing. "Our two contestants today are Huynh Quang and Phuong Anh Quang. Such a coincidence that they happen to be siblings. Moving on, what weapons will you assume today?"

"Swords," they answered in unison.

"Typical! Now, remember that you are allowed to use magic as long as it doesn't surpass the intermediate level and as long as the other knows how to use their Shields."

"We swear to it," they said again.

"Kay, catch your weapons!"

Elwing nimbly jumped out of the way and joined a group of halflings near the ring. Coincidentally she bumped into Regis, who jolted in surprise at the young elf's touch.

"Sorry," she apologized.

" S'okay," he mumbled.

From somewhere in the crowd, two swords were thrown into the air towards the arena; a beautifully crafted dwarven double-edged broadsword, and a thin, slender elven crafted katana. Huynh caught the broadsword and Ahnnie caught the katana; when both were holding their weapons ready, the bell rang an instant later, and soon the two brother and sister set upon each other with the loud rings of metal echoing above the cheer of the crowd.

"It always starts out like this," Elwing remarked to Regis. "No magic, just swordplay, then some sleight-of-hand! Personally, I'm placing my bet on Huynh."

"I don't know who I'd pick," Regis replied truthfully.

The Elf caught sight of his uncertainty and scrutinized him carefully, much to his discomfort. "Are you new?"

"Yes..."

"What's your name?"

"Regis."

A smile broke through her lips, warming the halfling pleasantly just as much as her frown had unpleasantly reminded him of Entreri...even though her face was nowhere as near as Entreri-like. "Mine's Elwing, and welcome to your new home!"

"Thanks."

Meanwhile, the two Quang siblings were still parrying and blocking each other's swords in a tense display of swordplay. Then, in a most unexpected way, Ahnnie pushed herself off the ground with some wind and used her sword as a medium for a thin pillar of fire.

Huynh saw it in time and a barrier of larimar came up to shield him from the flames. He grit his teeth at his sister's use of magic so earily in the match, and fought back with a splurt of seawater.

Ahnnie ducked neatly away from the path of the water and sent again a thin tendril of fire her brother's way. When he also dodged it and was still recovering his stance, she chanted a small spell that carried her sword forward at an opening in Huynh's defense.

He easily slapped the katana away and intercepted his sister as she tried jumping on him from above. The move happened so fast he thought that she actually transported herself there, but when he saw a second Ahnnie standing ready with a fireball building up in her hands, he realized he had been tricked by some jutsu.

"Sneaky!" he complimented her. "But not enough!" He impaled the ground in front of him with his sword, and with his Strength sent tremendous quakes ripping through the rock and soil at his opponent, who toppled over and left herself vulnerable.

* * *

"Daddy?" Kirin asked dumfoundedly.

"Daddy?" Leoht asked her back telepathically.

Drizzt had no idea what they were talking about, but from Kirin's tone of voice this visitor was unknown. Perhaps even unwanted.

"Oh Kirin, has it really been ten years?" the voice came again. "I haven't seen you since you were a baby. Please open the door."

The little girl could not move, could not even speak. All through her young life, she had never heard anyone say anything good about her father. She had never met him, either. According to Valkyrie, the tragedy that befell their mother happened when she was just a baby. If she remembered correctly, that tragedy had something to do with their father...

"Who is outside?" Leoht demanded. "Shall I eat him?"

Kirin's eyes narrowed as she stared the bulbous head of the man through the peephole. He looked wierdly distorted through the rounded glass, but his features were still clear to her eyes. "He looks Chinese," she answered, "with a fancy suit on. There's a old blond-ish man with a briefcase next to him..."

"Didn't you hear me sweetie?" the Chinese man asked a bit impatiently. "I want for you to open the door."

Kirin bit her lip and looked tensely back at the living room, to the wall where Drizzt was supposed to be. She could only hope that he was still there. "Um, if you're my dad..."

"Yes I am."

"...who is that guy next to you?"

A soft chuckle came from deep within the Chinese businessman's throat. His small eyes became mere slits when he smiled, and his teeth shone pearly white in the sunlight. They were distorted by the peephole so that it looked to Kirin as if he had buckteeth.

"A social worker, of course. I hired him to see what was going on in here. Your neighbor...a kindly Mr. McGristle...he sent me this. It prompted me to take action." The man held up a manila envelope, opened it, and revealed some newly developed photos.

All of the photos had Valkyries friends in them, from the day Breanna came to ease her heartbroken sorrows...but most importantly of all...

There was Drizzt!

* * *

Ahnnie fell to the ground and would've broken some bones if she had not applied a cushion of wind to soften her fall. Conjuring a thin layer of beryl, which she hooked to her arm like a knight's shield, she thwarted the boulders and rocks from hitting her and used her other hand to direct wind in the direction of the massive dust cloud Huynh's earthquake caused. She wanted to clear the way as soon as possible, before Huynh took advantage of her...

Right on cue, her brother's leaping form appeared from the cloud and his broadsword struck heavily on her beryl shield.

The blow made her stumble, and in the confusion Ahnnie did her best to resummon her sword back into her hand. When her fingers wrapped around its hilt, she disbanded the shield and plunged straight at her brother.

"Eat my dust!" she spat, and used the sword again as a medium of her magic, this time for the wind to blow the dust back at Huynh.

The boy coughed and took up a shield of larimar to protect him. He soon came from out of it though and launched a spell that gave his hands a web-like look and allowed gills to line his neck and ribs...

When he plunged into the earth, Ahnnie leapt high and let her wind carry her as she levitated away from where he dived.

_I can't sense him if I don't stay on the ground, _she thought. _But then he'd sense me if I do that! _So she tried plunging her katana into the ground, just like her brother, to fill the hole he made with fire.

Huynh jumped back up and almost swept her off her feet with a low side-swipe. When she stood once again on stable ground, she realized with some comfort that at least he had protected himself beforehand. Then she frowned when she realized how predictable his actions made her seem...and in a burst of injured pride, she chanted the same spell again to send three replicas of her sword flying at him, all set on fire.

He put the flames all out with a simple wave of seawater and parried the blades aside easily, as though he had been batting away feathers instead of swords.

"My turn," he seethed, and created a cage of coral around her.

* * *

"You see," the Chinese man continued, "there is someone strange living with you..." He pulled out another picture, this one with Drizzt holding a firm hand on Darcy's wrist after she had intended to slap him. "And it seems that he does not play well with your sister's friends."

Kirin looked at the photos in shock; had Mr. McGristle photographed them? If he did...oh, that sneak! Just because he was a retired FBI agent...

"There's no proof," she countered. "That could have been taken in any other house, with any other person..."

"Then how come young children were seen in the background?" He pointed fervently at Draky, who at that time was sitting in Kirin's lap.

"What..."

"And of course, there have always been the rumors about this family."

"What rumors?"

Mr. Social Worker pushed up his glasses and said something to the businessman. "Mr. Yuan, have you noticed so far that this young lady has been the only one to talk with us? That there were no older children or this grandfather you spoke of to come and explain things?"

"You've got it all wrong!" Kirin protested. "I'm not the only one here!"

"Then," Mr. Yuan said icily, "where are they? Hmm?"

"If she is truly alone," Social Worker said, "then we cannot proceed with the-"

"Dammit, you!" Luo Yuan cursed. "Shut up! I'm having this done and overwith and if not..."

"Go away!" Kirin wailed. "Or...Or I'll call the police!"

Drizzt, upon hearing her call, rushed up into the hallway. "Is everything all right?" he couldn't help but ask. "I heard voices-" But when he saw Kirin's stricken look, a look that begged for silence, he clamped his mouth shut.

"I heard somebody," Mr. Social Worker remarked. "He sounded old enough to reason with us."

"But not in any language I've ever known," Luo Yuan murmured.

"That was the TV," Kirin lied, but hearing the Chinese man's smirks, she knew he didn't believe her.

He looked up haughtily at the peephole. "Could it be that that voice belongs to a certain dark-skinned young man who happened to have his picture taken? Are you alone with him, Kirin? If so, I might just call the police..."

"No!" Kirin shouted.

"Why, my dear, if you say it like that, then you've already told me the truth."

The girl looked from Leoht to Drizzt and back again as she considered what to do. First, she had to be calm; if she had another outbreak like she just did, then obviously this Luo Yuan, or her father, would have enough evidence to break down the door; or have other people do it for him. From what she remembered, Valkyrie had said that Luo Yuan was a rich man. A very rich man.

"Why?" she asked, "If you're my dad, why have you come so late for me?"

"That's it," Drizzt heard the man whisper, but for some reason Kirin didn't seem to hear it. He wondered what the phrase could've meant.

"Because of this freak family," he answered.

"Freak family?" Kirin said the words as though they were the most absurd things she had ever known. "_Freak family? _How are any of us freaks?"

Luo Yuan's features turned grim. "They can do things beyond science, beyond typical human understanding. Those things are harmful and unpredictable; why, if they kept breeding, the whole world will be put in danger of them!"

Kirin's face reddened. "How dare you! You're insulting my sister too, AKA: your daughter!"

"Come then, Kirin," he rasped. "Come with me...I have a means to erase any possibility of this happening to you."

"What...? You can erase my magic?"

"Magic is not the right word."

But she ignored him. Her fingers tightly gripped at the door, the words and revelations of this meeting torturing her beyond comfort. "No..."

"Yes. Genetically you and Valkyrie have your mother's freak abilities and at the same time, my normality. Since you are still young, we can find away to take that part of your mother out of you. I met a scientist some time ago and he and his team have agreed..."

"Quiet!" Kirin shouted. Her nails were digging into the wood.

Leoht looked up inquisitively at her.

"That part of you is uneeded," Luo Yuan continued. "It will harm all humanity, especially if your kooky grandfather continues showing you how to use it as you are now."

"_Don't insult Grandpa!_" Kirin screeched.

Drizzt tensed. He had never seen the little girl get so angry before.

"Come on Kirin. Admit it. This place is no place for you; you will one day become a killing machine."

"_SHUT UP!_" Kirin's voice literally exploded the door into a million little pieces, finally destroying the barrier between her and her tormentor. She jumped down from her perch on Leoht's arched back, and ignoring Mr. Social Worker's astonished stare as he saw the dragon and Drizzt, immediately began working her magic.

Tree roots sprouted from the ground, grabbing the social worker's leg and holding him high into the air. He yelled out pitifully and dropped his briefcase. A moment later, he soiled his pants.

"What the hell is going on!" the middle-aged man shrieked as his glasses fell away.

Despite the damage and destruction, though, Luo Yuan stood calm. "See," he said softly, "you are already becoming a monster."

"If you were my father," Kirin seethed, "if you were anything close...you wouldn't call me that!"

"I should never have wooed your mother," he said with a frown.

The roots swung wildly, shaking Mr. Social Worker so badly he fainted in the process. They released him soon, though when he touched the ground his head was bleeding and his clothes horribly soiled.

"Yes," Kirin agreed. "Yes, you shouldn't have, because then _you wouldn't have k__illed her._"

"Oh, is that what Val said about me?" he asked with a smile. "How sad. What a sad, delusioned point of view that is..."

"Go away!" Kirin prompted, waving the tree roots at her 'father'. He nimbly dodged them, though, and still stood calm. "It's true! It's all true! Now that I've seen you for myself, I don't doubt Val one bit! _You _are the monster, not me!"

One root finally connected with Luo Yuan's head and knocked him out cold.

When Kirin realized what she had done, how wild she had let her magic run, she slowly sat down onto the hardwood floor of the hallway.

"Repair," she said softly to the broken bits of door.

* * *

Ahnnie struggled against her reefy prison as a jail inmate would do. It was sealed on all sides, even from the top, preventing her from flying out.

"I have you now!" Huynh cheered.

"We haven't even scored a hit against each other!" Ahnnie protested. "This isn't fair!"

"Baby sister." The boy sauntered around her cage, beaming proudly. "Fighting is never fair, isn't it? Besides, you should give me some credit! It took me a while to think of that move, and even longer to perfect it."

"Spell, you mean," the trapped girl said miserably.

Izdihar, from the crowd, couldn't help but smile at the boy's performance. "Good one, Huynh; you've finally contained the little fireball."

Simon Harpell, despite his views against fighting, seemed disappointed that the fight had ended so quickly. "I had expected to see more," he complained.

"Be quiet," Ahnnie grumbled.

Elwing raised an eyebrow. "Ok...if she can't really get out, then you, Huynh, win by forfeit-"

But Ahnnie, in the midst of the confusion, quickly motioned her hands in the forming of a spell and muttered, "Razor butterflies."

Dozens of metallic colored butterflies flew from the gaps in the coral cage and came on at Huynh furiously. He immediately took up his sword and parried them away, sometimes even slicing a few in half. In the process of striking one near the cage, though, the blade smashed through the coral bars and unwittingly set Ahnnie free.

"Thanks!" she said cheerily. "And rule number two in ninja training; never let your pride get the best of you!"

Huynh opened his mouth to protest, then clamped it shut when he decided that anything he said would make him look bad.

But before anyone could continue, the sharp sound of splitting wood echoed from some faraway distance. Both fighters paused in their stances; even the crowd stood stock-still. After the silence, a buzz of murmurs arose from the audience, and Ahnnie thought she could hear a halfling shout: "It came from the house!"

"Which house?" she asked the humanoid, fearing the worst.

The startled halfling pushed to the front of the crowd. "Your house!"

"Regis." Elwing came up close to him. "Are you sure?"

Another person wormed their way through the crowd, this one recognizable as someone familiar when he came through.

"D?" Huynh asked inquisitively.

The baker's face was dead serious. "Yuusuke already went to see what it was."

"Did you tell Val?"

"Not yet."

"Drizzt is inside," Ahnnie said worriedly.

"And so is Kirin," Huynh added.

The two siblings stared at each other for a long while, eyes wide in shock at the names they just said. "Kirin!" they yelled in unison, and leaping out of the roped arena, headed for the house.

* * *

Yuusuke Fudo came around the bend to inspect what all the noise was. He had raced from Valkyrie's stage, out the backyard fence, and then back into the 'normal' world of humanity to be greeted by the sight of two men lying unconcious on the ground, both with wounded heads.

"Oh dear," he gasped, and knelt down besides the men to feel for their pulses. Luckily, they were still alive, but in quite bad condition.

_Who are these men? _he wondered, and looked around for any evidence of an attack. Through a quick survey of the landscape, he noticed that grass was missing in some places, replaced by dirt in needle-like slits, as though someone had pitched their shovels there. Or as if something had come out.

After some quick but deep thinking, Yuusuke came to one conclusion. Kirin had used her magic.

_But she has a headache! _he thought confusedly. _She couldn't have...plus she doesn't have her magic under control yet._

Whatever. What needed to be done now was to erase these men's memories and send them off away from the house. He quickly took out an enchanted crowbar from his (again) enchanted pocket and tapped each men on the forehead lightly with the implement. Their faces relaxed somewhat, and soon Yuusuke was off finding something with which to send these guys away.

He made do with two skateboards he found lying on the sidewalk, enchanted them with a Japanese rhyme that would make them automatically mobile, then laid the unconcious men on them and sarcastically waved them goodbye.

_Oh, who cares who they were? _Yuusuke reasoned. _Probaby a couple of annoying door-to-door salesmen. They deserved it for bothering Kirin. _

A car that was speeding down the road screeched suddenly as the driver managed a last-minute brake to avoid the knocked-out men and busted its nose against a tree.

_Oops._

* * *

Kirin didn't know how long she spent kneeling on the floor, or how long she was silent for, but what she knew, or thought, was that she had just fatally injured two people. Or killed them.

But didn't they deserve it? They, or at least Luo Yuan, had insulted her family, her bloodline, and he wanted to erase something that made up her own character, something that ran too deep for her to have let anyone try and remove it.

Then some more horrible news: she let her magic get the better of herself; and it wasn't even properly controlled yet.

Kirin trembled slightly, not at all warmed by the calm and healing fires of Leoht. She gripped her head tightly, feeling her migraine returning, and whimpered at the thought of almost killing her own father.

Drizzt dropped his knife and knelt beside the little girl, his hand on her shoulder. Her guardian growled half-heartedly at his move, but then the dragon didn't seem to care much. Kirin needed all the comfort she could get now...

"What is wrong?" the drow asked softly.

Kirin didn't understand, but caught the drift of it. "I didn't kill him..."

Drizzt looked helplessly to Leoht, then to Kirin. _I can never understand these people, _he thought bitterly. Then: "Perhaps we should let you rest. It seems that you're hurting..."

"I didn't kill him..." she repeated.

"No, you didn't!" Leoht objected. "Stop blaming yourself!"

"I didn't kill him..." Her big, brown eyes, now misty with oncoming tears, searched the faces of her guardian and Drizzt for answers. "...did I?"

"You haven't!" Leoht roared.

Drizzt firmed his grasp on the girl's shoulder. "I know this feeling. I once killed a fellow member of my race...I doubt that you did anything serious, but what is the past is now the past. Regretting it cannot fix anything!"

Kirin ignored the both of them, though, and began to cry.

"Kirin..." Leoht nuzzled against the little girl's cheek.

"I don't want my magic erased!" she wailed suddenly. "I want to be me! And I can't believe...believe that...that I have such a horrible father!"

Drizzt placed a gentle hand on her face and did his best to wipe away her tears.

Suddenly feeling vulnerable, weak, and sad at the same time, Kirin clung to the drow's arm and sobbed heavily, crying without shame.

In response, Drizzt wrapped his arms around her, hiding and sheltering her from what seemed a horrible world. She accepted his embrace and cried right into his chest, soiling his tunic; but he didn't seem to care. As a finishing touch, Leoht spun his serpentine body around them both, creating some sort of barrier.

"I wish he didn't appear," she said through her sobs.

Drizzt didn't have any words to offer; they wouldn't have understood it anyway; but even so with his free hand he stroked the little girl's hair and whispered calming words hoping that he could comfort her in some way.

"I want Val," the girl said suddenly, and then stopped crying.

Drizzt held her out for a moment, wondering what had befallen her. He was immediately horrified when he saw a streak of red blood against the side of her forehead, apparently from a popped vein.

Leoht saw it too, and looked urgently to the drow.

"We will have to get her out," Drizzt said.

Leoht nodded, understanding somewhat where the drow was going.

"Your small figure cannot carry her weight," the drow continued, "so that leaves only...me." He grimaced slightly at the idea of rushing outside to the Festival when Long Ha had obviously warned against it. Sanctuary's inhabitants wouldn't take lightly the fact that a drow was amongst them.

But was being rejected once again more important than a little girl's health?

No, he decided, and lifted the girl's small figure up in his arms. "Be my eyes," he begged Leoht. "I'm afraid that, in such bright light, I will not be able to see well."

The Lung tilted his head curiously, then wrapped the end of his tail against Drizzt's wrist. He rose in the air and tugged for the drow to follow him out the back door.

Drizzt followed gingerly, feeling his eyes sting the more he moved to the door that would lead him outside.

Then the exact same door opened, revealing a young man with a shock of black spikes...and a very surprised face.

"Drow!" he yelled.

Leoht, in total panic, shoved the man out of the way and tugged Drizzt so hard and fast that the drow had to run to keep from stumbling. The sunlight hit his eyes so cruelly they began to water, and it was proving a liability to him as he bumped into surprised humanoids all over.

The dark elf checked the girl in his arms, still unnerved by the fact that her wound was bleeding more freely. "Please, slow down," he begged of Leoht, but the hectic dragon didn't seem to hear him.

* * *

_A drow! _Yuusuke thought, horrified. _He...He abucted Kirin! _And if his memory proved right, Kirin was bleeding somewhere on the side of her head.

_Leoht must be trying to pry her away, _he mistakenly thought, remembering the way the Lung had its tail wound around the dark elf's wrist. _I've got to help her!_

He regained his wits sometime after Drizzt was already gone into the crowd and yelled, "Drow! There's a drow! He's kidnapped Kirin!"

The crowd went wild.

* * *

**Intermission; Please look forward to Part 3.**

* * *

I hadn't expected for the Festival to last this long! But again, I am busy, so I will publish this much more. Part 3 should be the end of Fest, but if not...well, it should be. Please look forward to it!


	12. The Blueberry Festival: Part 3

Its me again :). Sorry for taking so long...summer stuff and all.

Well I finished up Legacy ((_NOOO_ Wulfgar! *sob*)), Starless Night, and Siege of Darkness, **and am now reading Passage to Dawn.**

I haven't heard anything from Entreri since Starless Night...but Jarlaxle got more page-time than before, though, I gotta say! And Captain Deudermont is back! XD

I also realized that in Starless Night R.A. Salvatore already introduced the elven girl Drizzt saved, Ellifain. When I created this fic I was not aware of that, since I was just reading Sojourn, so I created my own elf girl, Elwing. Pretty close in the names, huh? Anyways, even knowing this, I still want to keep Elwing. After all, she was unique and completely an OC when I thought of her; plus, why should I restrict myself to R.A's thinking? And the meeting I plan for her and Drizzt is more...violent. But no worries, they'll get along well later! Depends on when that is, though.

Thanks for your support!

And in this chapter, some hours after the crowd's all done being frightened by Drizzt's appearance, the night festival should begin. And a certain royal dwarf family will drop in on it. Enjoy...

* * *

Leoht nearly jolted at all the noise the crowd was giving off, but he did not let that deter him; he even nose-lifted a peice of wet cloth from a vendor's stall and aimed it perfectly on Kirin's wound. The cloth hit with a little _splat _and sprinkled a few droplets on the trailing drow's nose. That didn't bother Drizzt much; actually, it was more welcome than bothersome; but his main focus right now was Kirin _and _the sunlight.

How it burned! He wanted to keep his eyes open for any obstacles in their path, but every time he so much as squinted, the hellish morning-noon sunlight hit his eyes in full force, prompting him to close them back up again. That would then result in him bumping into other shocked, scared, and surprised humanoids and, once, Harkle Harpell himself. Luckily they were already speeding away before the curious wizard could have any say in what happened.

Leoht had his nose in the air, sniffing out for Kirin's older sister, Valkyrie. She knew some healing, enough to close this magical wound, at least, and she (hopefully) wouldn't be too surprised about Drizzt's prescense in this whole affair. As much as the Lung hated it, he had to admit that having the strong drow carry his ward was actually helping him lots. Perhaps he wasn't so bad after all...

The thought was immediately interrupted by a sword-wielding pair that intercepted them midway. The blades came out so fast that Leoht had to stop, lest he and Drizzt be unwittingly skewered.

Drizzt sensed the trouble and saw the annoying light reflect off those blades, but he did not wish to defend himself or to fight when he saw who the wielders were.

"Drizzt?" Huynh and Ahnnie asked in unison.

Regis the halfling stopped right behind the two teenagers, and when he peered around their bodies, he gave a shriek. A drow! Dark Elf! Here, in Sanctuary! And, if he remembered correctly, the girl the drow was holding was also the one who happened to be in the meditation/council room when he first came. Did the drow knock her out?

_Woe is me, _the halfling thought miserably. _If it's not Entreri or Pook, it's something else! Much worse, too!_

Ahnnie inched closer, but this time with her sword facing down. "Drizzt, what's happened to Kirin? We heard an explosion and-"

"Give her to me," Huynh interrupted. His face was stern yet indiscernible; no one could tell what he was thinking or feeling at seeing the drow handle the young girl. To further prove that his will be obeyed, he handed his broadsword over to a nearby dwarf and held his arms out to recieve his little cousin.

Drizzt stoically complied, with some directional help from Leoht. Once the transaction was made, the Lung dragon let go of his wrist and went off to float beside Kirin.

Before, in a rush of urgency, Drizzt had felt that he had been doing right in personally bringing the girl here. If he had tended to her at home and kept it secret until the family came back, they might have suspected something fouler. Leoht could have helped her, that much was agreed to, but for the Lung to have cooperated in this wild run meant that there was more to the girl's wound than Drizzt knew. Besides, Kirin's health and well-being was a great concern to her family, so the drow felt obligated to have let them known.

Now? Facing Huynh, the most suspicious and distant member towards the drow, he felt unsure. It was good that he brought Kirin...but was it so good a fact that he had possibly tarnished the Quang family reputation in front of their Sanctuary wards, by revealing that they had kept a drow in the house?

He didn't know. And didn't want to know.

"What happened?" Huynh asked as he gently held the girl in his arms. He had even removed his cloak to use as a blanket for her.

"I..." Drizzt sighed. "I do not know."

"What do you mean, you do not know?" The boys sharp tone sliced through the drow's conscience ever so painfully.

"Someone came at the door," Drizzt explained, "and his foreign words had upset Kirin. She loosed her magic from the inside and it went awry...A vein popped on the side of her forehad soon after. Her guardian and I then agreed to take her out to search for any capable healers." His lavender eyes set upon Huynh's yet again, in a contest of wills.

"Thank you," Ahnnie said warmly. She lifted the makeshift bandage and peered at the wound. "At least you understood enough to have known that it was caused magically." She shifted around to face Drizzt again. "If you had tried to tend to it as you would a normal one...well, she would probably be dead by the time the night festival started."

The weight of the news hit Drizzt like a giant brick wall. So he _had _been right in bringing her. Forget his reputation, and forget the family's (do forgive him) reputation; a person's life, especially that of a child, was much more important!

"Let's take her to Val," Huynh said, more a command than a suggestion, and with a few elves in tow plus the dwarf carrying his sword, he left in the direction of the musical stage.

Ahnnie lingered a little longer, and when Mallik and Simon were hurrying to join, she quickly grabbed Drizzt's wrist and dragged him speedily towards the outskirts of the festival. The run took several minutes, perhaps longer, but Drizzt's blood was racing as he wondered what was happening. Several times, he thought he heard (and saw!) his captor snatching things from vendors.

Then came an absolute blackness, a condition that Drizzt was able to function in comfortably. He switched to the infrared spectrum and opened his eyes. Ahnnie, a large block of heat, stood before him, brandishing a pair of strange spectacles and a bottle of some drink.

"We're in a cave," she said, confirming Drizzt's suspicions.

"I can see that," he said.

Awkward silence.

"You did good," she said at last. "You saved her life. We could not have asked for better."

Drizzt nodded, basking in the warmth of her appreciation. But still, there was an ominous and grim air about it all, and he knew that it involved him. So said his unhappy expression.

"Don't go making the burden worse for you," she continued. "They will be surprised and shocked for a few days...but afterwards, everything will be all right."

"Did you have any special guests?" he asked quietly.

"Three magical families," she reported. "Two of which are close friends, the other a first-time visitor." She gave a sigh. "Unfortunately, what happened today will have to be explained at the next Wizard's Meet..."

"Which is when?"

"Wintertime of this year. Don't worry, its a lot of tendays away."

More silence.

Ahnnie seemed to remember something then, and opened up the bottle. "Here, have some; it's blueberry juice." Drizzt accepted it and he heard her relieved sigh as he began drinking the juice with gusto. Next, she began chanting something with her hand hovering over the spectacles. When she finished, she gestured for Drizzt to move his head in lower.

Drizzt complied, and she slid the spectacles over his eyes.

"They're enchanted sunglasses," she explained. "They'll help you cope better with the sunlight, and the magic will automatically lessen the more you get used to it."

The drow touched the edge of the glasses lightly, amazed that such a spell could help him.

"Actually, the magic degrades because I'm such a klutz at this spell," she admitted. "But I'm learning, and the degrading goes slowly...hopefully...so yeah, it'll help you."

"Thank you anyways," he said.

Something then rustled deep within the cave. Drizzt's head turned sharply in the direction of the noise, and he detected another shape of heat coming up to them.

* "Who are you?" the tall, slender figure asked in a strange accent. "And vie have you come to deesturb our sleep?"

"Put a sock in it, Dracula," Ahnnie said sourly. "We'll be leaving soon, so go back to bed or something."

"Who is Dracula?" Drizzt asked curiously.

"_Count _Dracula!" the vampire corrected them. "And I vill not tolerate unvonted visitors een my cave!"

"I said, we'll be leaving _soon_!" Ahnnie protested. "If you're so grumpy about it, why don't you try a little sunlight for a change? Maybe you'll sparkle like Edward Cullen and co."

"Do not speak to me of zose blasphemous vampires!" Dracula hissed. "Zey are not even vampires! Zey are a deesgrace to all vampires of the vorld!" His cape billowed mysteriously behind him. "Per'aps if you are not so afraid, I should try turning you into von right now? I do feel a bit peckish..."

"Cripes," Ahnnie muttered. "I picked the wrong cave to hide in." She grabbed Drizzt's wrist again. "Come on, we better go; he's serious when he does that."

With the help of some wind, Ahnnie speedily boosted them out of reach of the vampire, and back into the sunlight. They still stood on the edge of the festival, so it was basically empty except for a few baby bengal tigers playing nearby. Somewhere in the distance, a dinosaur roared.

At first, Drizzt kept his eyes closed, having forgotten about the sunglasses. When he remembered, he opened them, slowly, gently...

Indeeed, the light was much more tolerable now! No more stinging eyes, no more streaming tears of pain, and no more bumping into things from now on! Or, until the magic of the sunglasses ended.

The ony detrimental thing was...everything seemed a bit darker.

Ahnnie plopped down onto the grass, panting breathlessly but smiling. Giggling, even.

Drizzt sat down beside her, wondrously seeing the girl with a very, very heavy tan. He knew it was the coloration of the lenses from the bits of color at the lower corners of his eyes, but still, everything seemed so strange in a singular hue...

"Count Dracula's a big meanie when his sleep is interrupted," she explained to Drizzt.

"What is he, though?" Drizzt asked.

"A vampire. They cannot tolerate sunlight, kind of like you, but unlike you, they turn to ashes if even a drop gets on them. They feed by sucking blood from their victims, and if they're powerful enough like Dracula, their victims turn into vampires too. Sometimes they are ok with animal's blood; take note, the animal never turns into a vampire; but human blood is the most delicious to them."

"I see." The drow turned away to thoughtfully gaze at the tiger cubs. "And who is Edward Cullen?"

"A vampire," Ahnnie said, matter-of-factly. " 'Cept he's not a real vampire. He's from a story...and a crappy one at that."

"Is it a legend among them?" Drizzt asked.

"Legend? No way. The story takes place in this very century. It's only a few years old now, but trust me, it hasn't gotten any better. It still sells like hotcakes for some reason."

"Then someone wrote it?" Drizzt asked again, assuming from Ahnnie's words that the story was in a book. "Perhaps a wizard? Otherwise it wouldn't be so successful unless there was some sort of enchantment..."

"There is no enchantment. Just stupid people." She sighed. "The book's got it all wrong about vampires; the biggest thing being, the vampires there can go in the sunlight and _sparkle_! Second, Edward Cullen falls in love with a _human _girl named Bella. A big no-no in the world of vampires. True vamps like Dracula," she pointed briefly back at the cave, "treat any human they get their hands on as food or a slave. If they cannot have it as either, then they mercilessly slaughter the victim. You saw what he almost tried to do to us; and he definitely did _not _treat me like I was Bella."

"You seem very upset about that." The drow attempted to give her a small smile.

"Of course I am! I really hate it when someone gets something wrong about 'mystical' people and creatures." She gave a big huff. "They don't know anything and make up whatever they want, and then some fanatics even adapt to their theory. Then there are people who take what they know from 'mythology' and obsess themselves with it pointlessly. You probably don't know, but several teenagers in another state even started a 'werewolf pack' amongst themselves because they think that being werewolves is 'awesome' and 'cool'. And they're not even real werewolves."

_Crazy indeed, _Drizzt thought.

"Heck, they don't even know what damage a real werewolf could seriously do," she grumbled. "And the true loneliness behind it. That's the same as someone wanting to be you...but not knowing the burdens. Just shamelessly saying that he is you, or like you, without even considering..."

That struck a chord within Drizzt.

"Be prepared, Drizzy," Ahnnie said, tagging an affectionate nickname on him in the process. "The human world is ugly. No one is truly innocent here, not even amongst the humanoids. If there aren't people who want to use you, beat you, or criticize you, then there are people who jump to conclusions and act as if they're master of the world, or all-knowledgeable. Hence the 'werewolf pack' teens."

"It sounds like Menzoberranzen," Drizzt said softly.

"Perhaps even worse," Ahnnie agreed. "And there are many more types of people than just the two I spoke of."

"But I do not regret my decision."

"Well, I guess I wouldn't either, if I were you."

He gave a mocking smirk. "Are you assuming that you are me? Or like me?"

"No way!" She slapped his arm playfully. "I'm not a crazy wolf-pack teenager!"

"Then tell me." He adjusted the sunglasses to a comfortable perch. "Why would you not regret the decision to leave Menzoberranzan?"

Ahnnie sat back in the grass and let one of the Bengal tiger cubs pounce on her. She patted its fluffy head absentmindedly as she thought of what to say. "Well, from what I've heard, Menzoberranzan runs on secrecy, revenge, and power. Right?"

Drizzt nodded.

"And everyone seems to have a station in life there," she continued. "If I were a drow, I'd be trained as a priestess, blindly serving a ruthless goddess and killing innocent surface-dwellers and svirfnebli...why would I, the way I am now, even want to stay? Here, it may be more corrupt, but at least you still have the freedom to do and be what you want."

He gave a little smile, which grew wider as the same Bengal cub pounched onto his lap. His dark ebony hands ran through its soft, downy fur...how adorable it was, those big, baby eyes, and that cute little tail!

"Surely not everything is lacking in innocence here," he reasoned.

"Surely," Ahnnie repeated, and stroked the little cub behind the ears.

"For example. I met your family." Drizzt picked up the cub and let it lick him on the nose. "You are not like the dark elves of Menzoberranzan...and I'm sure none of the humanoids here are as corrupt as you fear. Otherwise, why would you shelter them?"

"Good question," Ahnnie said. "But we still allow in vampires such as Dracula and other 'gruesome' monsters because of one singular purpose. Human development."

"I wonder how bad that is," Drizzt said with a frown.

"Very bad." She rolled onto her back to look at the clouds. "They think of it as development...when it actually is a new way to slowly kill everyone and everything. You should read the Paradox of Our Age by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. It tells that in detail."

At "His Holiness", Drizzt's face grew sour. "Is he a prophet?"

"No. Not a god, either. Just a monk."

"A monk of what religion?"

"Buddhism."

"And you follow it?" he asked skeptically.

"My whole family does." Ahnnie looked at him from the corner of her eye. "Why do you seem so angry about it? Is it because you're afraid that we blindly follow it like the drow follow Lolth?"

"Sort of." He sighed. "I have had enough of religion, especially those that call for blind faith."

"Don't worry, then!" she said with a laugh. "Buddhism is more opinion than worship!"

He cocked an eyebrow.

"It has principles, of course, which I believe can relate to yours too. Yours, meaning, your _new _way. The statues in our meditation room represent followers of Buddhism who are like good examples for us to follow. (A/N: Minus Qwan Yin! Note, this family does _not _have her statue there.) We also believe in reincarnation, which is a cycle of rebirth."

"I've never heard of anything like that..."

Ahnnie then suddenly sat up, and earned a curious tilt-of-head look from the tiger cub. "We'd better be getting back," she said. "I'll tell you more about Buddhism later; but if we're late for this, I'll be grounded for the rest of summer vacation!"

"What...?"

But she had him running behind her in the next second. He remembered to put the tiger cub back, of course.

* * *

Eld watched Ahnnie and Drizzt from a distance, worrying all through their talk that the drow would try something funny, like take her sword and slash her throat or strangle her in the grass. But none of that happened; they seemed to have been enjoying themselves. He felt a twinge of fatherly jealousy knowing that Ahnnie had not even wondered where he was.

Whatever happened, anyways, he was still her guardian.

And now as Ahnnie prompted Drizzt to move, apparently from an important magical message from her grandfather, Ahmereld followed quietly, like a green shadow.

* * *

Huynh approached Valkyrie slowly, having interrupted another session of her song. Mallik and Simon followed suit; when Ahnnie suddenly ran away with the drow, they grew confused and tried to tail her, but she was gone too fast for them to find her amongst the many festival partakers and stalls. They found their way easily back to Huynh, who now with Valkyrie seemed to be the center of a very important drama.

"Kirin!" Val cried out, and hurriedly left her zither to see to her sister. Aubaine floated close by, her windy hands touching the girl's forehead a little.

"She burst a vein," Huynh explained. "Apparently, some unwanted visitor said some things to her which got her upset. And she used her magic too much..."

Val ripped the cloth away from her little sister's forehead and placed her hand on the wound, chanting softly but hurriedly. The wound started closing, and though it was small, the spell seemed to be taking all of Val's effort and strength to close it.

"Who was the visitor?" Valkyrie asked impatiently.

"Dunno," Huynh said. "Only Drizzt and Leoht were there. Drizzt can't understand any human languages, and Leoht can't talk and doesn't use telepathy much. So we're in the dark."

"Only until she wakes up," his cousin said softly. "If the house isn't safe anymore, then perhaps we can find some tent..."

Izdihar came up then, announcing that Yuusuke Fudo had some answers. "He saw the men," she said. "And a drow, carrying her away." The Arabic girl looked around, trying to find the 'drow'.

Yuusuke, as if on cue, appeared at the foot of the stage. "They looked like businessmen," he began. "One was Chinese, the other Caucasian..."

"Chinese?" Valkyrie frowned.

"Yup. A crooked nose, bushy black hair, some wrinkles here and there..."

"That doesn't give us any specific clues," she cursed. "Oh well. At least it tells us something. I trust that you can keep her safe?"

"Me?" Yuusuke pointed at himself.

"Yes, you!" Val began feeling the magical pulses in her own head. "Grandpa is summoning us for something at the Lake. Please keep Kirin with you until we get back."

Huynh felt them too, and after depositing the little girl in Yuusuke's arms, followed his cousin as she impatiently dashed towards the said location.

"What do you think it is?" he asked.

"Perhaps he found out," she said.

"About Kirin?"

"And Drizzt."

"I hope Ahnnie got it too," he said. "That little duncebucket might forget."

"Don't discredit her so much. She's your little sister."

"Oh, what a good reason. _You _didn't look back only to find out that she _left alone with the drow_."

Valkyrie turned an incredulous eye on him. "I thought you said you trusted him?"

"Not completely! Just enough to know that he's not going to kill us yet!"

Namiq, who had been silently following, butted her ward in the back of his legs. "More walking, less talking," she scolded.

"Well," Val said as they picked up the pace, "change of subject. Finished your science report yet?"

"That was done ages ago!"

"What grade did you get?"

"D," the boy said through gritted teeth.

Valkyrie pressed a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter.

"Don't make fun of that! It took all my thinking and research to accomplish!"

But she didn't press the point.

They eventually came to the edge of the Arwen Lake, a favorite haunt of water nymphs and freshwater merpeople. Today there was not much activity in the water; everything seemed still. The only other people besides themselves were Long Ha, Ahnnie, Eld...and Drizzt (wearing sunglasses!).

Huynh and Val sooned joined their grandfather and sister under a giant willow tree, sitting cross-legged at their grandsire's feet, as was the custom.

"I suppose you have already known about your little sister," the old man said in Vietnamese to Val.

"I know," she said.

"But how did you know?" Huynh asked his grandpa.

"I have friends and resources," the grandfather said. "But enough with the questions. A rule has been broken."

The teenagers looked amongst themselves, wondering who had broken what rule. They came on time, and they did not dilly-dally; they wouldn't even dare to; so why had a rule been broken?

Ahnnie considered teasing her brother about eating too many sweets, but deciding the importance of the matter, she let it go. "What rule?" she asked her grandpa.

His old brown eyes turned squarely upon Drizzt. "You broke it," he said at last, in the drow language.

"I...I broke...?" Drizzt stuttered.

"Did I not tell you to stay inside?"

The drow looked confused and crestfallen. Perhaps not as confused as he was crestfallen because he had known, somewhere in his gut, that Long Ha would berate him.

"No way!" Ahnnie interrupted. "I mean...Grandpa, please, he saved Kirin's life. That was a magic wound, and no normal cures could have..."

"What is that supposed to do, then?" he asked testily.

"Well, Leoht couldn't have carried Kirin all the way out here by himself, and his healing fires are for physical wounds only...please, Grandpa, Drizzt is innocent!"

Drizzt's lavender eyes focused then upon the grass beneath them. But strangely, he felt no anger. Only determination. Those purple eyes then refocused on Long Ha, strong as ever, ready to prove his point. "I accept that I have broken your rule. But it was on behalf of a child." His gaze never wavered. "I could not stand to see her die, and could not bear seeing her so deep in pain when she thought she had killed a man..."

"You mean, her magic hurt somebody?" Val asked.

"The black-haired man," Drizzt said.

"The Chinese one," Huynh said.

"What?" Ahnnie asked confusedly.

Huynh quickly explained Yuusuke's findings to the whole group. "We don't know the motive of these guys," he finished, "but they said something that really bothered Kirin. And..." He turned a flustered look over to Valkyrie.

"One small clue stands," the bespectacled girl said quietly. "Our father is Chinese."

"But then what about the Caucasian one?" Ahnnie asked. "Who is he?"

"Dunno," Huynh shrugged.

"This is a matter that cannot go unprecedented," Long Ha said sternly. "Those men are outsiders to our family and are most unwelcome, whether they have magic or not. When Kirin wakes up, we shall learn more."

"Yes, Grandpa," the three teenagers said together.

"And finally." He turned a probing eye over Drizzt. "If you want to make amends for the rule you have broken, then you can find away to calm the poplace by yourself."

"I understand," Drizzt said grimly.

"But he can't do that all on his own!" Ahnnie sputtered incredulously. "He's just...just..."

"One drow?" Long Ha challenged. "Do you mean to say that they will never overlook the fact of his skin and heritage?"

"No, I mean...how can they, scared as they are?"

"You have little faith in him then," he said crossly. Long Ha then turned in his wheelchair, preparing to wheel it off to some other place. "Meeting dismissed. Go back to the festival."

Ahnnie's next look, to Drizzt, made her seem on the verge of crying.

"Yes, Grandpa," the three teenagers said with a slight bow.

* * *

The walk back to the festival was long and uneventful. No one spoke except maybe for Val and Huynh, who conversed with each other briefly about schoolwork. Ahnnie had her eyes focused on some distant thought, and Drizzt's heart was pounding yet again in trying to find a solution; a way to bring peace to the frightened poplace. It seemed quite strange and illogical that Long Ha should assign the very thing that scared everyone to try and calm everyone. But Drizzt knew the motive.

Long Ha told him to stay indoors only because his very presence was unaccepted by most of the humanoids.

And if he dared to break that rule...

...then those same humanoids must learn to accept him. And he, probably, will end up tasting yet again bitter rejection.

Never mind the fact that he saved Kirin's life. None of them saw it, so how could they ever believe it?

When they reached the borders of the festival grounds, Mallik, Simon, Lillyn, and Kellindil raced out to meet them. Drizzt's head rose up a notch, his face burning from a very bitter feeling.

"So what happened?" Mallik asked Ahnnie impatiently. "What about the drow-" The Arabic boy's dark eyes caught Drizzt's lavender orbs. "Oh my..." He could not even finish his exclamation. "A real drow! We were not dreaming!"

Simon gallantly reached out a finger to poke the said drow.

Drizzt turned slightly, and the Harpell boy yelped.

Lillyn, meanwhile, fluttered frantically over Drizzt's and Ahnnie's heads. "What are we to do? Oh, what are we to do? If Elwing sees this..."

"Elwing," Ahnnie muttered. "Crap! If Elwing ever sees him..." She cast a worried glance Drizzt's way.

"Out of my way." Kellindil pushed through Mallik and Simon to stand bravely before the drow. Switching to drow language, he said, "Greetings, drow."

Drizzt, slightly surprised to be seeing a surface elf, returned the greeting a bit shakenly. "G-greetings..."

"You are a drow," Kellindil mused. "And yet you dare set foot in this place we call our haven."

Drizzt frowned. "I have not come for warring purposes."

"Oh, really? And how are we to believe you?"

"Stop it, Master Kellindil," Ahnnie defended Drizzt. "There's much more to this than you think. Grandpa will release the news in time..."

"She is right," Drizzt put in. "You have not heard my story yet."

"Nor have you smelled his boots," Eld muttered quietly as an afterthought.

But Ahnnie, having caught every word, quickly added, "Or seen how dirty his laundry was."

Both guardian and ward remembered that night very clearly.

"And I believe _that_ will prove its own point soon?" Kellindil asked skeptically.

"Yes," Ahnnie nodded. "Now please...let us pass into the marketplace."

"With him?" Mallik pointed at Drizzt. "You know, that won't sit well with many people..."

"Grandpa said so," Huynh said authoratively, and cut a path through the few people that stood in his way. "Come on Drizzt, time for you to 'calm the poplace'."

"Don't make him nervous," Valkyrie protested.

"What happens if he gets nervous?" Simon asked curiously. "I'd like to record this for Uncle Harkle. Does he sweat? Break out in hives? Excrete any certain substance?"

Ahnnie made a face. "No."

"He just gets nervous," Val said with a big sigh of exasperation.

"Perhaps he does it all internally?"

"Um, ew," Ahnnie said. "That doesn't sound possible..."

"It wouldn't stay inside for long," Simon said as reassurance.

"That would be worse!"

"Not so," Simon said matter-of-factly. "If he keeps it all inside, he'd bloat and then explode; now that would be worse!"

"I've had enough science for one life," Huynh said with a grumpy grunt. "So please keep all scientific research to yourself and my sister. Kay?"

"Why me?" Ahnnie asked.

"Because you seem fitting for all that gross stuff."

"What!"

Normally, she would have playfully swatted her brother, but now as Drizzt saw, there was a noticeable heaviness in her steps. Perhaps what her grandfather had said struck her deeply. Drizzt heard it too, but didn't think of Ahnnie's opinions as lacking in faith.

They finally reached the festival, the turning point of the whole day and future of Sanctuary. The people still seemed merry and festive, but when their eyes saw Drizzt, everything went quiet.

"Hello, everybody," Ahnnie attempted. "Um, how's the festival going? Great, right?"

More silent, curious, and frightful stares.

"Talking to them yourself isn't going to do anything," Huynh remarked to his little sister.

"Oh, it is going great!" Simon said. He had not noticed the ominous air about them because he had been intently observing Drizzt the whole time. "I especially love the blueberry ice-cream, and the pancakes, and-" Now it seemed that he just noticed the staring crowd. "Oh...hello!"

"Drow!" A halfling from somewhere cried, pointing his little chubby finger accusingly at Drizzt. "It's a drow!"

"Yes," Valkyrie said dryly, "he is a drow. Now will you _shut up_ and listen to him?"

"Ouch," Mallik remarked.

"Cold," Ahnnie added.

The bespectacled girl gave a sigh. "Well, how else are they going to listen now? Of course, Drizzt shouldn't do the same," she quickly added.

Pharaoh Atum-Ra was the first to raise his fist in the air.

"What is it, Pharaoh?" Ahnnie called out to him.

"Let us hear him!" the Pharaoh suggested. "I have never seen a drow, only heard of them, and even then I didn't believe in them full-heartedly. Perhaps they are not all stereo-typed as you think!"

"Yeah..." Ahnnie said. "Yeah, of course! Like Pharaoh said-"

Drizzt had, unexpectedly, jumped to the side and almost knocked her over. She gave a small exclamation of surprise and looked at Drizzt, dumbfounded. "Dr-Drizzt? Something wrong?"

The drow looked back at the tree behind him, where an arrow that had not been there before quivered from the force of its flight. He looked forward to the only place it could have come from.

Elwing.

The other teenagers and guardians noticed it too, and began mobilizing in front of Drizzt to shield him.

"Elwing, wait!" Huynh cried out. "Grandpa wants him alive!"

"Why should he?" the elf girl spat. "He is a drow! A killer!" She had her longbow pointed at Drizzt, as if he were some blasphemous thing she wouldn't dare touch.

Drizzt did his best to push away from his circle of protectors. "I am fine, I don't need all of you to shield me."

"But Elwing's a sharp shooter," Ahnnie objected. "She could have easily hit you right in the heart!"

"That will not stop me," Drizzt said firmly. "Your grandfather has given me this task, which if not given I would have never thought to do it. It's a new chance for me-"

"But what if you die?" she asked softly.

The drow only pat her head affectionately, and didn't say anything.

"Putting that aside," Valkyrie interrupted, "You must know some things first." She looked to Elwing, who already began fitting an arrow to the bowstring. "Years before, when my mother and uncle were still young, a drow raid took place in the forests."

Drizzt looked at her curiously.

"They attacked at a tribe of wild elves. Only one survivor remained...and it was her. Elwing."

Now his lavender eyes were open wide.

"She lost her mother in the attack," Huynh said. "That is why she's especially bitter towards the drow. Only thing is, it seemed strange for her to be spared; considering the drow ways, they would never have overlooked her or-"

"Drizzt!" Ahnnie suddenly called out, remembering her doubts from the beginning of the festival. "Did you take place in that raid?"

The sudden barrage of information and questions made Drizzt's head swirl. The facts reminded him of the raid that night, and the little elf girl with the sparkling eyes...he looked up at Elwing now, and somewhat recognized those eyes. "Yes," he said softly, "I was in a raid..."

Everyone around him went quiet.

"_A _raid," he corrected them. "I am not sure if I was in that raid of which you spoke of. But I do remember a little elf girl that was spared."

"What did he say?" Elwing asked the Quang teenagers, for she didn't understand drow.

Valkyrie translated it for her, word for word, and looked to Drizzt to see if he had any more to say.

"Ask her for me," the drow pleaded, "if she remembers a drow pushing her down to the ground, concealing her beneath her dead mother's body."

Valkyrie asked, and Elwing nodded slightly. "Yes," the elf girl said, "I remember. Is he implying that he's the one that did it?"

"I am the one," Drizzt said after being asked the translated version. "I remember it clearly...I had no desire that night to kill any surface elf, let alone a little child." He swallowed. "I saw her running to her mother, crying and yelling out to her...only to find out that she was dead..."

Ahnnie translated this time, and it seemed that Elwing could not hold back any longer.

"I never wanted to please Lolth," Drizzt continued. "So I hid the little girl under her mother's body. I told her to stay still, but I doubt she understood me. I doubt that she evern knew I meant to save her." He looked pained.

"Elwing?" Huynh asked when the elf girl began pacing up to them. "You all right?"

She ignored him and stopped before Drizzt. She eyed him evenly and continued her glare, though it was wetted with oncoming tears. "I remember," she said softly, "purple eyes."

Ahnnie gasped. "Really? You never told us..."

"I had always assumed it was a hallucination," Elwing said. "After all, drow have red eyes, not purple. But..." She sighed. "This does not prove anything yet. If you expect me to continue on in the festival with him around, then I think Mr. McGristle would make a better guest." She turned on her heels and gracefully bound off, tearing through groups of amazed onlookers and festival partakers. The suspense was only heigtened when Valkyrie translated for Drizzt.

"Well, at least she didn't kill him," Mallik said hopefully.

"What happens when drow get sad?" Simon asked curiously. "Do they cry like us?"

"If they're humanoid, then of course they have tears," Huynh said.

"Like what Drizzt is having now?" Lillyn asked, pointing to the drow.

Ahnnie turned to look at him. "Drizzt? Oh no, you really are..."

The dark elf took off his sunglasses wiped at his eyes gently, as if to make it look like he was only tired. "I am fine. Nothing's wrong." He put the darkened spectacles back on and continued to face the crowd, taking all their ensuing insults and jeers in stoic stride.

* * *

The night festival begun later, with torches and campfires to illuminate the dark sky. The moon was now only a slice amongst the clouds, and the more celestial light came from the stars.

The nocturnal inhabitants of Sanctuary came out at this moment; the vampires, the lycanthropes, and etc. Still some of the partakers of the day festival lingered, mostly to watch the dazzling display of blueberrry-blue fireworks.

Drizzt and the other teenagers plus some friends sat around a large fire, some feeling more than a little down, and others feeling absolutely cheerful.

After what had happened in the marketplace, Val had left to take back her little sister from Yuusuke, and Ahnnie and Huynh decided to find something for Drizzt to do. He didn't seem up to playing one of the festival games, so they decided to help unpack or unload things for the vendors for the rest of the day, proving somewhat Drizzt's helpful strength to the suspicious stall-keepers.

"Well," Ahnnie said softly to try and enlighten Drizzt's mood, "You can try taking off your sunglasses now."

The drow did, but the sight of the fire made him wince, so he put the glasses back on.

"Sorry."

"Its all right."

Valkyrie came back then, her green cloak billowing behind her. Holding her hand was Kirin, awake and well.

Drizzt was the first to spring up from his seat, so glad he was at the little girl's recovery. He immediately came over and asked her big sister if she was all right.

"She is all right," Val said. "In fact, she even said she wanted to see you..."

"See me?" Drizzt asked curiously. "What fo-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Kirin had him wrapped in a tight hug from the waist down.

The drow was surprised, but he soon calmed and pat her on the back.

"Thank you," Kirin said appreciatively. "I heard what you did for me. And I owe you one."

Drizzt smiled widely and bent down to her height to return the hug. "It is I who should thank you," he said. "You have made my heart soar this night."

"Should this even be happening?" Huynh asked Namiq as he watched the scene unfurl.

The winter wolf only cocked her head to the side.

Leoht came to join in the embrace, breathing colorful little fires into Drizzt's hair so that it seemed as though the white mane was flashing in different hues. It didn't burn him, of course.

When the two separated, Drizzt went back to his seat, and Kirin and Val found two more places to join at the fire.

"So this Drizzt wasn't really hurting her?" Mallik asked.

"No, not at all," Valkyrie said. "It seems that he has helped her, and found a spot in her heart." She smiled. "Drizzt doesn't seem like other drow at all."

"Curious!" Simon exclaimed. "A willfull separation from culture. Interesting!"

"Is your Uncle Harkle anywhere nearby?" Huynh asked worriedly.

"Oh? No, not now, he's watching the fireworks."

"Good. Tell him your findings on the way home and not here then."

"Um...sure."

Lillyn stopped in her fluttering to land on Mallik's blonde hair. "Ah, nothing like some marshmallows to roast over the fire," she said, holding out a stick with very tiny blue marshmallows skewered on.

"I'd like some marshmallows too," Mallik said thoughtfully. "Where did you get them?"

"Here." The fairy dropped down a small (fairy small) bag into Mallik's hands.

The Arabic boy chanted an enlargement spell, and the bag of fairy marshmallows became a normal human-sized bag. He found a stick and poked three of them on, then held them out for the fire.

Ahnnie did the same, and so did Huynh, Valkyrie, Kirin, and Eld. Simon dug into some tentatively, and Drizzt only stared curiously.

Ahnnie, noticing his looks, used some of her fire magic to quickly roast a marshmallow. "Try one," she offered.

The drow took it and plopped it into his mouth. He then reached for some more, and a stick.

Eld purposefully sat in between them and started roasting his own marshmallows. "I hope you're not forgetting," he said to Ahnnie, "that you have a guardian with you?"

"Of course not, Eld," she said with a smile, and ate some marshmallows.

Valkyrie cleared her throat, meaning for everyone to listen. Everyone did, and they looked to her patiently. "Well," she began. "Kirin told me everything that happened."

They all leaned in closer, even Drizzt.

"The two people that came were my father and a social worker."

"Oh gods," Huynh breathed.

"A social worker?" Simon asked worriedly.

Val frowned. "Nothing is wrong in our family. Please listen and refrain from interrupting." She now lowered her eyes to the ground. "It seems...it seems that my father was trying to get in the house and inspect everything. He also wanted to take Kiri to some scientists to erase her magic."

"That can't happen!" Ahnnie cried out, and Eld pushed her back down.

"I know. It's unlikely." Val smiled grimly. "But what I know is, he'll be back in other ways we may not even recognize."

"Yuusuke told me I didn't kill him," Kirin said with a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness, I was so scared..."

Val hugged her closer. "Me too."

Drizzt sighed wearily. "He saw me."

All eyes turned on him. "What?" Val asked.

"When the door broke down," Drizzt said. "Your father saw me."

"That's very bad," Mallik remarked.

"Perhaps he doesn't remember now," Ahnnie suggested. "The force of the blow could have erase his memories..."

"We can only hope on that," Huynh sighed.

"He already knew of Drizzt anyway," Kirin said, "when he revealed some photos of Drizzt and Breanna."

Silence.

"Why don't we put this all behind us?" Mallik suggested. "We have a festival here, and it'd be a shame to spoil it."

"I guess you're right," Val said.

But they had only gotten back to marshmallow-roasting when a gruff dwarven shout echoed among the crowd: "Make way for King Bruenor o' Clan Battlehammer!"

The Quang children looked amongst themselves and left the marshmallow roasting to see who King Bruenor was. If they remembered correctly, Clan Battlehammer was a clan of dwarves just on the farthest side of Sanctuary, at the mountains. But they have never met the dwarves before, and those dwarves had never bothered to come down for anything at all. So this would be a special meeting between them.

Once there, they faced a whole battalion of armed dwarves, with the front being led by a certain red-bearded one flanked by a slender, seemingly delicate human girl and a way-too-tall and way-too-muscular human boy. The boy was blonde, the girl, auburn.

"Greetings, King Bruenor," Huynh said as he swept into a bow.

"Eh," Bruenor grunted, not one for formalities.

"We're of the Quang family," Ahnnie explained. "And we've heard much of you."

Bruenor wasn't one for compliments either.

"What brings you here?" Val asked.

"I've come to give back a human," Bruenor stated, to-the-point. "Not me daughter here," he said, indicating the beautiful auburn-haired girl. "But this." He went behind the muscly blonde boy and pushed him forward.

"I don't want to go!" the boy said stubbornly; and his voice boomed right into everyone's ears. Drizzt cringed at the volume of it.

"Damn ye Wulfgar, yes ye will!" Bruenor huffed. "Ye've served yer number o' years, and done fine in the mines. Now beat it!"

"Wait, wait," Huynh pleaded. "Returning a human? What does that mean?"

"Don't get any funny ideas," Bruenor snarled. "I didn't do any kidnapping. 'Tis blondie here who caused the trouble!"

Wulfgar seemed ashamed.

"What did he do?" Ahnnie asked.

"Threw junk on me side of the mountain, he did," Bruenor huffed. "Then he just went and flew down from the sky!"

From what he said, some troublemakers had thrown trash into their backyard and somehow one of them toppled over into Sanctuary. This made the Quang children a little worried.

"There was an ad in the news saying a boy named Wulfgar **Ellingboe went missing a few years ago," Mallik suggested.

"That's me," Wulfgar boomed.

"They stopped the investigation, though," Valkyrie recalled.

"At that time, Mr. McGristle was pointing his fingers at us," Huynh said. "He blamed us for Wulfgar's disappearance...well, now we know he's safe and sound. And discovered our secret, too. Thank you, King Bruenor, for bringing him back. We'll make sure he is-"

"No!" Wulfgar roared.

The auburn-haired girl next to Bruenor frowned. "C'mon Wulfgar, don't make this any harder than it already is..."

"You don't understand, Cattie-brie!" the big boy shouted. "I don't want to go back, and I will never go back!"

"Why?" Huynh asked. "You can go back to your family. I'm sure they missed you-"

"No they didn't!" He huffed. "Ever since my father died, my stepmother thought she could take charge of everything. I couldn't stand it; she married another man, a DRUNKARD, and they made my life miserable!" He turned to Cattie-brie. "You've always had a loving father, and during these past few years, he has become like a father to me too! Please, dont' make me go back! And if I must go, then I will never return to that house!"

"Suren ye've known what the darn news said about you?" Cattie-brie argued. "The police stopped the search n' presumed ye dead! Ye're a minor still, and no adult yet in their eyes! If ye don't go back to yer family, where else can ye go?"

"Why not here?"

"Ye've finished yer years! Now beat it!"

"No!"

"Hold it, calm down!" Ahnnie jumped in between them. "Ok, well Wulfgar doesn't have to go back to his family."

"Stinking family!" Wulfgar added.

"But this is a problem if he stays here." She cast a worried glance at the muscular boy. "I mean, no human has ever set foot in Sanctuary before..."

"Cept maybe Mr. McGristle," Kirin added.

"...and it would upset the order of things. If you want to stay and consider yourself endangered by human development, then you'll have to talk to my grandfather." She straightened up a bit. "He'll listen to you and decide on it."

Wulfgar brightened up and looked back at Cattie-brie as if to say 'I told you so'.

"Whatever," she mumbled. "At least he's off our hands."

The seemingly irritated facade Cattie-brie and Bruenor put up made them look as though they cared not a bit for Wulfgar; but closer observation would perhaps uncover relieved expressions and moist eyes. So, in truth, they were reluctant to let him go.

"We'll be stayin' here for a bit," Bruenor announced. "The long march here took, well, long." He stretched, and stamped a foot on the ground. "Since it seems ye're all havin' some fun, we'll just join in too."

Cattie-brie seemed to lighten up at the fact that they could stay awhile, and the entire group of dwarves behind her 'father' cheered out their happiness. Soon the lot of them was off trying to find a good drink, and Cattie-brie and Wulfgar took up conversation somewhere near a fountain.

"Well, that was surprising," Ahnnie remarked. "But at least they didn't see Drizzt yet..."

"Don't you find it strange that Cattie-brie is a human too?" Simon asked. "I mean, no one even asked..."

"Grandpa had a hunch that Bruenor Battlehammer had adopted a human girl," Huynh interrupted. "She was orphaned, as he heard it, so no actions were taken. I guess it's ok, since she supposedly came at a very young age, too young to have been influenced by outside world ideas."

"Her name is Cattie-brie..." Drizzt muttered.

"What?" Ahnnie asked him.

"Nothing," he said, and wondered why he seemed to have taken such an interest in the spirited young dwarf's daughter.

* * *

**End of the Blueberry Festival**

* * *

* What Dracula said, if you who couldn't quite figure out the accent:

**"Who are you? And why have you come to disturb our sleep?" **

**"_Count _Dracula! And I will not tolerate unwanted visitors in my cave!" **

**"Do not speak to me of those blasphemous vampires! They are not even vampires! They are a disgrace to all vampires of the world!" **

**"Perhaps if you are not so afraid, I should try turning you into one right now? I do feel a bit peckish..."**

** Ellingboe is a Scandinavian last name. I chose it because it somewhat resembes the word 'Elk' and because the barbarian names sound Scandinavian.


End file.
